ABSTRACT

This special section contains a collection of articles that study how children are affected by their sibship size and composition by examining their influence on several demographic outcomes across time and space. The importance of the specific historical context, as put forward by the conditional or gendered resource dilution model, seems to be justified, as inheritance practices and gender preferences were determining demographic outcomes.While these studies provide us with the possibility of reflecting on what kinds of pathways/mechanisms are behind sibling effects, they also demonstrate that much more can and should be investigated.Four recommendations for future studies are formulated: (1) future studies should continue on the same path as the articles in this special section and address different outcomes in a variety of contexts to determine under which conditions siblings matter for life transitions and demographic outcomes; (2) theoretical frameworks from different disciplines should be integrated to increase knowledge exchange; (3) researchers should think more about, and be transparent about, how siblings and families are defined; and (4) qualitative studies should be included to a greater extent, since quantitative studies alone cannot answer the questions we have about how and why sibling effects influence life transations and outcomes.

摘要

这个特殊的部分包含了一系列文章，这些文章通过检查儿童在时间和空间上对几种人口统计结果的影响，研究了他们的同胞人数和组成如何受到影响。有条件的或按性别划分的资源稀释模型提出的特定历史背景的重要性似乎是合理的，因为继承做法和性别偏好决定了人口统计结果。尽管这些研究为我们提供了反思哪些类型的途径/机制是同级效应的背后，它们还表明可以而且应该进行更多的研究。针对未来的研究提出了四个建议：（1）未来的研究应与本节中的文章继续走同样的道路，并在各种情况下应对不同的结果，以确定兄弟姐妹在何种条件下对生活过渡和人口统计结果至关重要；（2）应整合不同学科的理论框架，以增加知识交流；（3）研究人员应该更多地考虑并透明化兄弟姐妹和家庭的定义；（4）应该更大程度地包括定性研究，因为仅定量研究不能回答我们关于同胞效应如何以及为什么影响生命转化和结果的问题。（2）应整合不同学科的理论框架，以增加知识交流；（3）研究人员应该更多地考虑并透明化兄弟姐妹和家庭的定义；（4）应该更大程度地包括定性研究，因为仅定量研究不能回答我们关于同胞效应如何以及为什么影响生命转化和结果的问题。（2）应整合不同学科的理论框架，以增加知识交流；（3）研究人员应更多地考虑兄弟姐妹和家庭的定义，并对其保持透明；（4）应该更大程度地包括定性研究，因为仅定量研究不能回答我们关于同胞效应如何以及为什么影响生命转化和结果的问题。