Table 8.
Breakdown of mechanism variables by gender and sibling status
| All sample | Female | Male | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | (1) Have siblings (N = 982) | (2) Only child (N = 338) | (3) Mean difference | (4) Have siblings (N = 496) | (5) Only child (N = 152) | (6) Mean difference | (7) Have siblings (N = 486) | (8) Only child (N = 186) | (9) Mean difference |
| Panel A | |||||||||
| Positive parenting behaviours | 0.457 | 0.512 | −0.055* | 0.474 | 0.533 | −0.059 | 0.440 | 0.495 | −0.054 |
| (0.248) | (0.251) | (0.250) | (0.251) | (0.247) | (0.251) | ||||
| 1. Read books or look at picture books with child | 0.599 | 0.645 | −0.046 | 0.619 | 0.645 | −0.026 | 0.578 | 0.645 | −0.067 |
| (0.240) | (0.230) | (0.236) | (0.231) | (0.244) | (0.230) | ||||
| 2. Sing songs with child | 0.432 | 0.435 | −0.003 | 0.476 | 0.480 | −0.004 | 0.387 | 0.398 | −0.011 |
| (0.246) | (0.246) | (0.250) | (0.251) | (0.238) | (0.241) | ||||
| 3. Tell stories to child | 0.450 | 0.497 | −0.047 | 0.454 | 0.520 | −0.066 | 0.447 | 0.478 | −0.032 |
| (0.248) | (0.251) | (0.248) | (0.251) | (0.248) | (0.251) | ||||
| 4. Play with child | 0.741 | 0.784 | −0.043 | 0.740 | 0.796 | −0.056 | 0.743 | 0.774 | −0.031 |
| (0.192) | (0.170) | (0.193) | (0.163) | (0.191) | (0.176) | ||||
| Panel B | |||||||||
| Material investment | 5.527 | 5.920 | −0.392*** | 5.496 | 6.010 | −0.514*** | 5.560 | 5.846 | −0.286** |
| (2.582) | (2.547) | (2.831) | (2.128) | (2.331) | (2.890) | ||||
| 1. Cost of purchasing vitamins | 2.592 | 3.078 | −0.486*** | 2.495 | 3.256 | −0.761*** | 2.691 | 2.933 | −0.242 |
| (7.219) | (7.434) | (7.189) | (6.789) | (7.246) | (7.954) | ||||
| 2. Cost of enrolling in extracurricular classes | 0.615 | 0.968 | −0.353*** | 0.900 | 1.387 | −0.486** | 0.323 | 0.626 | −0.303** |
| (3.856) | (5.704) | (5.387) | (7.458) | (2.133) | (4.042) | ||||
| 3. Cost of purchasing toys | 4.121 | 4.536 | −0.416*** | 3.847 | 4.539 | −0.693*** | 4.400 | 4.533 | −0.133 |
| (4.248) | (3.876) | (4.558) | (3.568) | (3.785) | (4.148) | ||||
| 4. Cost of purchasing books | 3.515 | 3.820 | −0.305** | 3.538 | 3.972 | −0.434** | 3.492 | 3.696 | −0.204 |
| (4.109) | (4.260) | (4.090) | (3.515) | (4.136) | (4.857) | ||||
| Other characteristics | |||||||||
| Educational expectations of child | 4.147 | 4.246 | −0.099** | 4.149 | 4.263 | −0.114* | 4.144 | 4.231 | −0.087 |
| (0.519) | (0.352) | (0.584) | (0.354) | (0.453) | (0.352) | ||||
Standard errors are in parentheses
Results indicate that only children receive significantly more material investment than children with siblings, especially among girls. However, differences in positive parenting behaviours are relatively small and mostly insignificant. Additionally, parents of only children tend to hold slightly higher educational expectations for their children, though the magnitude of this difference is modest
Positive parenting behaviours is a dummy variable in which parents are considered to be invested in positive parenting behaviours if they have more than three of the following positive parenting behaviours. Material investment is the sum of all the following material inputs
* p value < 0.1 (marginally significant)
**p value < 0.05
***p value < 0.01