ARE ONLY CHILDREN DIFFERENT - A STUDY OF CHILD PSYCHIATRIC REFERRALS - A RESEARCH NOTE

For this study, 683 only children seen in a psychiatric clinic were co mpared with 2364 children from two-child families seen in the same cli nic. From the age of 5 years, there were no differences between the tw o groups. Among the under-5s, a higher proportion of only children had problems which did not warrant a psychiatric diagnosis, and their par ents were more often rated as being over-protective. Our findings sugg est, however, that the parents of only children differ from other pare nts not in being more overprotective but in being more willing or able to seek medical advice. Copyright (C) 1996 Association for Child Psyc hology and Psychiatry.