Cape Town: Growing up with lots of siblings has its downsides as a recent study suggests that having lots of brothers and sisters means that you are at greater risk of behavioral problems and falling behind at school.
According the University of Houston study, families face a substantial quantity-quality trade-off: increases in family size decrease parental investment, decrease childhood performance on cognitive tests and measures of social behaviour, You magazine reported.
The research further claims that these negative effects are not merely temporary disruptions following a birth but in fact persist throughout childhood.
Co-author Dr Chinhui Juhn said that a lot of what happens in early childhood has lasting impacts and in many respects, this matters more than a lot of things that happen later in (a child's) life.
In conclusion, it seemed that children from large families with financial difficulties suffered the most.
The study is published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
