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Parental Investment After the Birth of a Sibling: The Effect of Family Size in Low-Fertility China.

ABSTRACT: A large body of research has examined the relationship between family size and child well-being in developing countries, but most of this literature has focused on the consequences of high fertility. The impact of family size in a low-fertility developing country context remains unknown, even though more developing countries are expected to reach below-replacement fertility levels. Set in China between 2010 and 2016, this study examines whether an increase in family size reduces parental investment received by the firstborn child. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study improves on previous research by using direct measures of parental investment, including monetary and nonmonetary investment, and distinguishing household-level from child-specific resources. It also exploits the longitudinal nature of the CFPS to mediate the bias arising from the joint determination of family size and parental investment. Results show that having a younger sibling significantly reduces the average household expenditure per capita. It also directly reduces parental investment received by the firstborn child, with two exceptions: (1) for firstborn boys, having a younger sister does not pose any competition; and (2) for firstborn children whose mothers have completed primary education or more, having a younger brother does not reduce parental educational aspirations for them. Findings from this study provide the first glimpse into how children fare as China transitions to a universal two-child policy regime but have wider implications beyond the Chinese context.

SUBMITTER: Chen S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7736524 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Indirect parental genetic effects may be defined as the influence of parental genotypes on offspring phenotypes over and above that which results from the transmission of genes from parents to their children. However, given the relative paucity of large-scale family-based cohorts around the world, it is difficult to demonstrate parental genetic effects on human traits, particularly at individual loci. In this manuscript, we illustrate how parental genetic effects on offspring phenotypes, including late onset conditions, can be estimated at individual loci in principle using large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) data, even in the absence of parental genotypes. Our strategy involves creating "virtual" mothers and fathers by estimating the genotypic dosages of parental genotypes using physically genotyped data from relative pairs. We then utilize the expected dosages of the parents, and the actual genotypes of the offspring relative pairs, to perform conditional genetic association analyses to obtain asymptotically unbiased estimates of maternal, paternal and offspring genetic effects. We apply our approach to 19066 sibling pairs from the UK Biobank and show that a polygenic score consisting of imputed parental educational attainment SNP dosages is strongly related to offspring educational attainment even after correcting for offspring genotype at the same loci. We develop a freely available web application that quantifies the power of our approach using closed form asymptotic solutions. We implement our methods in a user-friendly software package IMPISH (IMputing Parental genotypes In Siblings and Half Siblings) which allows users to quickly and efficiently impute parental genotypes across the genome in large genome-wide datasets, and then use these estimated dosages in downstream linear mixed model association analyses. We conclude that imputing parental genotypes from relative pairs may provide a useful adjunct to existing large-scale genetic studies of parents and their offspring.

Project description:ObjectivesLarger sibships are associated with poorer cognitive and language outcomes but have different impacts on child emotional development. Previous studies have not taken into account sibling age, nor have impacts across multiple neurodevelopmental domains been considered in the same participant group. This study investigated the influence of family size indicators on early childhood cognitive, language and emotional-behavioural development. The effect of sibling age was considered by evaluating these relationships separately for different sibling age categories.DesignProspective birth cohort study.SettingParticipants in the Barwon Infant Study were recruited from two major hospitals in the Barwon region of Victoria, Australia, between 2010 and 2013 (n=1074 children).ParticipantsThe 755 children with any neurodevelopmental data at age 2-3 years excluding twins and those with an acquired neurodisability.Outcome measuresCognitive and language development was assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition, and emotional-behavioural development was measured with the Child Behaviour Checklist for Ages 1½-5.ResultsGreater household size was associated with a reduced cognitive development score (adjusted mean difference (AMD) -0.66 per extra household member; 95% CI -0.96 to -0.37; p<0.001) without age-specific differences. However, poorer expressive language was only observed for exposure to siblings between 2-6 and 6-10 years older. Having siblings 2-6 years older was associated with less internalising behaviour (AMD -2.1 per sibling; 95% CI -3.1 to -1.0; p<0.001). These associations persisted after multiple comparison adjustment.ConclusionsThe influence of siblings on early childhood development varies substantially by sibling age and the neurodevelopmental outcome under study. Although family size alone appears important for cognitive development, age-specific findings emphasise the importance of sibling interaction in early childhood expressive language development and emotional behaviour.

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Parental Investment After the Birth of a Sibling: The Effect of Family Size in Low-Fertility China.

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