There are a few social stigmas about only children. As a mother of one myself, I get asked often when I’m planning on having more. People tend to be surprised that there are no plans for more children in my future.

Many think that only children will suffer socially, especially when compared to their peers with siblings. However, more research has been done into the singletons, and the results aren’t too surprising.

Only children are as social as their peers, and being an ‘only’ doesn’t effect social skills. While they may lag a bit upon first entering school, the playing field does even out fairly quickly.

According to the research team (oddly enough, the same research team that found that only children did show a difference):

“Once you’ve been in school for a while it may be that you’ve had plenty of opportunities for peer interaction and you overcome that deficit,” says Downey. “That’s what we found…. It looks like all of that washes out by the time [students] reach adolescence.”

(Source)

While there is still the slight lag, the playing field levels due to the school interaction. The team also mentions that if a parent is concerned about any lag, or would like to introduce social situations with peers sooner- to go ahead. Playgroups, preschool, and other child-related groups are a great way to get your singleton used to social interaction earlier.

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