SIBLING AGE SPACING EFFECTS UPON COGNITION

Obtained American College Entrance Examination (ACE) scores for 355 male and 658 female undergraduates in the 8 sibling categories of the 2-child family with age spacing between siblings from 1-6 yr. Results indicate that for males, ordinal position significantly influenced cognitive activity, with higher scores for 1st-born and larger age spacings, while sibling sex was not influential. For females, ordinal position was not a significant influence on cognitive activity but higher scores were achieved with the possession of like-sexed siblings and closer age spacing. Results were interpreted in the light of sex-role congruency of the age spacing as a facilitator of intellectual functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.