独生子女会不合群吗?

    提到独生子女，人们总会把他们和“社交能力差、朋友少”联系在一起。许多父母担心独生子女缺少和同龄人的交流，可能会损害他们以后的生活的社交能力。然而，最新研究发现，没有兄弟姐妹的青少年也能克服任何社会交际困难，他们也和同龄人一样有很多朋友。
    The Gist¹: Growing up without siblings³ doesn't harm social skills.
    The Source: "Good for Nothing? Number of Siblings and Friendship Nominations⁴ Among Adolescents," by Donna Bobbitt-Zeher and Douglas B. Downey, Ohio State University.
    Serial⁵ parents may think that each new sibling² offers their offspring the gift of companionship. But while we tend to think that siblings teach one another conflict resolution and other interpersonal skills, new research says they are no better off socially than children without siblings.
    "Most studies look at the negative consequences of having siblings in terms of educational outcome," said Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, the lead author of the study. "But we decided⁶ to look at social skills to see if there was any other possible benefit to having brothers or sisters." She and her co-author, Douglas Downey are sociologists at Ohio State's Marion campus, and neither is an only child. They presented their findings at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in August.
    The paper is in large part a reply to a 2004 study, "Playing Well With Others in Kindergarten: The Benefits of Siblings at Home," also co-authored by Dr. Downey, which found that kindergarten teachers rated children without siblings worse in interpersonal skills, self-control and problem behaviors.
    But an only child isn't necessarily a loner, misfit and brat⁸. First, the social advantages found in children with siblings in the kindergarten study were quite modest. Second, the study relied on teacher evaluations⁹, and teachers may not be reliable judges of friendships among their charges.
    And now it seems that any benefits documented in kindergarten disappear altogether by middle school. Using a metric called "peer nomination," in which youths are asked to identify their friends by name, Dr. Downey and Dr. Bobbitt-Zeher drew on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, with a sample size of 13,466 students in 7th through 12th grades. They then counted how many people named each individual as a friend. This was used to proximate social skills since the socially inept¹⁰ would be unlikely to have lots of friends. The result: children without siblings had just as many friends as children with siblings.
    "I see the two studies as a natural progression, showing what happens to the only children who didn't have much interaction before kindergarten," Dr. Downey said. Another study he is working on shows that the same only children evaluated in kindergarten had caught up by fifth grade.
    While the studies don't examine the cause for the disappearing social boost to kindergartners with siblings, Dr. Downey speculates that continuing school, youth clubs and other group activities — especially in an era of overscheduled children — provide ample opportunity for onlys to sharpen their skills.
    Or, speculates Dalton Conley, a sociologist⁷ at N.Y.U. who has studied sibling relationships, because an only child tends to be adult-centric, "it's plausible¹¹ these only kids have trouble relating to fellow 5-year-olds." He added, "as they age, they are better able to relate to kids who are more adultlike." Sorry, Gosselins, advantage only children.

1 gist   

n.要旨；梗概

参考例句：

• Can you give me the gist of this report?你能告诉我这个报告的要点吗？
• He is quick in grasping the gist of a book.他敏于了解书的要点。

2 sibling   

n.同胞手足(指兄、弟、姐或妹)

参考例句：

• Many of us hate living in the shadows of a more successful sibling.我们很多人都讨厌活在更为成功的手足的阴影下。
• Sibling ravalry has been common in this family.这个家里，兄弟姊妹之间的矛盾很平常。

3 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

4 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

5 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

8 brat   

n.孩子；顽童

参考例句：

• He's a spoilt brat.他是一个被宠坏了的调皮孩子。
• The brat sicked his dog on the passer-by.那个顽童纵狗去咬过路人。

9 evaluations   

估价( evaluation的名词复数 )； 赋值； 估计价值； [医学]诊断

参考例句：

• In fact, our moral evaluations are merely expressions of our desires. 事实上，我们的道德评价只是我们欲望的表达形式。 来自哲学部分
• Properly speaking, however, these evaluations and insights are not within the concept of official notice. 但准确地讲，这些评估和深远见识并未包括在官方通知概念里。

10 inept   

adj.不恰当的，荒谬的，拙劣的

参考例句：

• Whan an inept remark to make on such a formal occasion.在如此正式的场合，怎么说这样不恰当的话。
• He's quite inept at tennis.他打网球太笨。

11 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。