认知与发展心理学研究室知识库

家庭规模对个人的成长和发展会产生哪些影响，这是社会科学领域一个持久且热门的研究话题。自1979年我国实行计戈日生育政策以来，独生子女的问题被广泛研究。各地保教工作者对学龄前的独生子女与非独生子女的智力、健康、性格特点等做过不少对比调查。这些调查报告多聚焦于一省、一地的分析，较少有大范围的、全国性的调查，月在人数匹配、条件控制等方面还不够严格。认知发展在儿童早期发展领域中是非常重要的维度。在二孩政策到来的新千年，独生子女和非独生子女在儿童早期认知发展中是否有差异呢?城市和农村中的独生子女、非独生子女的认知发展又会有什么差异?随着年龄的增长，独生子女和非独生子女之间的差异及其城乡差异是否会有变化?这是木研究所要解决的研究问题。

本研究选取了来自全国东、中、西部地区六个省(市)732名儿童和他们的主要养育人作为被试，用修订过的家长问卷和儿童认知问卷作为研究工具，分别在儿童4岁、5岁和6岁进行三年的追踪测查。比较独生子女和非独生子女在其学前3年中认知发展方面的差异;从性别、家庭城乡背景、家庭社会经济地位、母亲受教育水平，母亲年龄以及家庭中的亲子互动情况等几个方面，探讨影响独生子女和非独生子女的认知发展差异的因素。

研究发现:1)城市的独生子女的早期认知发展水平显著高于非独生子女;农村的独生子女和非独生子女在早期认知发展水平上没有显著差异;2）独生子女和非独生子女在早期认知发展水平上性别差异不显著;3)独生子女和非独生子女在早期发展水平上城乡差异显著;是否独生和家庭城乡背景的交互作用对儿童早期认知发展有显著影响;4)出生次序对非独生子女认知发展没有显著影响。

作为一种初步的尝试性探索，本研究以历时三年的追踪研究数据为分析对象，分析结果部分地支持己有教育学家和心理学家所发现的“独生子女的早期认知发展水平和非独生子女没有差异，甚至优于非独生子女”的观点，此外，分析发现4岁城市家庭的亲子互动能够对5岁儿童认知分数产生显著积极影响。未来更多的关于幼儿园教育背景、家庭社会经济地位、性别结构、出生间隔等其他因素的相关研究，将有助于我们更加全面地理解新的人口政策背景下家庭规模与儿童早期认知发展之间的关系。

The impact of family size on one's development has been a popular research topic in social sciences. Since the implementation of the family planning policy in 1979, the only child issue has been extensively studied. A large amount of comparative researches have been carried out by child care workers on intelligence, health, personality development of the only-child and child with siblings. These researches, however, often focus on a specific province or area; only few researches look into this issue at the national scope, and their testes matching and condition control are not strict enough. Cognitive development is a very important dimension in early childhood development. In the new millennium, the launch of the two-child policy has brought about many new questions: are there any differences between the only-child and non-only-child in the early cognitive development stage? What will be the urban-rural differences between only-child and non-only-child in cognitive

development? Will the urban-rural differences evolve at different age? These are also the questions this research hope to answer.

In this study, 732 children from six provinces (cities) in the eastern, central and western regions of China were selected as the samples. The revised parental questionnaire and the child cognition questionnaire were used as research tools in a 3-yearlongitudinal research (from 4-6 years) of the sampling children. The differences on cognition development between the only-child and the non-only-child in their pre-school three years were discussed. The influence of gender, family background, family socioeconomic status (SES), mother's education level, mother's age and parent-child interaction in family were also considered for both only-child and non-only-child.

The results showed that: 1) the level of only child's cognitive development was significantly higher than that of non-only-child in urban areas; the only child and child with siblings in rural areas exhibited no significant difference in early cognitive development; 2) There was no significant gender difference in early cognitive development between the only child and non-only-child; 3) There was significant rural-urban difference at the early developmental stage of the only-child and non-only child; the interaction of whether the child's singleton status and the family's rural or urban background had a marginal significant impact on the child's early cognitive development; 4) birth order had no significant effect for non-only children's cognitive development.

As a preliminary exploration, this study is based on the data collected from a three-year longitudinal research, and the results partially substantiate the view of "the level of early cognitive development of the only child has no difference from or even superior to that of the non-only child" which has been found by psychologists. In addition, the analysis found that the parent-child interaction in urban family at 4 years old could have a significant positive impact on the children's cognitive scores at 5 years old. Future research on kindergarten education background, family socioeconomic status, gender structure, birth interval and other factors may help us to gain more knowledge and evidence on the relationship between family size and early childhood cognitive development in the context of new population policy.