宜誠鼎峰社區

Growing up without siblings does not mean a child will have poor social skills later in life, researchers say. A US study of more than 13,000 11-to 18-year-olds found "only-children" were chosen as school friends just as often as peers who had brothers and sisters.

研究人員說，沒有手足相伴長大，並不代表一個小孩將來社交能力會不好。美國一份針對1萬3000名11到18歲民眾的研究發現，獨生子女在校交到朋友的機會，跟有兄弟姊妹的人一樣多。

An earlier study by the Ohio State University team had found poorer social skills in only children at nursery. But they found that children "catch up" during their school life with peers who have siblings.

俄亥俄州立大學團隊稍早的研究發現，幼稚園裡，獨生子女的社交技巧較差；但他們發現，獨生子女會在學校與有手足的同儕生活期間「迎頭趕上」。

The sociology researchers used data from the National Study of Adolescent Health, for which students at more than 100 schools were interviewed during the 1994-95 academic year. Each student was given a roster of all students at their school, and asked to identify up to five male and five female friends, allowing the researchers to see how popular a student was by counting how many times peers identified him or her as a friend.

社會學研究人員運用1994-95的學年，訪問100多所學校得來的國立青少年健康研究數據。每個學生都拿到全校學生名單，並被要求指出5名男性與女性朋友，研究人員藉著計算同儕認為他或她是朋友的次數，觀察1名學生受歡迎的程度。

Overall, students in the study were nominated by an average of five other schoolmates as a friend. There were no significant differences in that number between those who had siblings, and those who had none.

整體而言，研究中的學生平均被其他5名同學認為是朋友。有手足與無手足的人，被指為朋友的數目沒有顯著差別。

新聞辭典

sibling：名詞，手足。例句： I have four siblings：three brothers and a sister.（我有4個手足，3個兄弟1個姊妹。）

nursery：名詞，托兒所。例句：Does Jake go to a nursery or a childminder?（傑克是去托兒所還是要請人帶？）

catch up：片語，迎頭趕上。例句：He was off school for a while and is finding it hard to catch up.（他沒上學一段時間，發現要趕上很難。）