Many parents may think that each new sibling (兄弟姐妹) offers their children the gift of companionship. But while we tend to think that siblings teach one another conflict resolution and other interpersonal skills, new research says they are no better off socially than children without siblings. "Most studies look at the negative consequences of having siblings in terms of educational outcome," said Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, lead author of Good for Nothing? Number of Siblings and Friendship Nominations Among Adolescents. "But we decided to look at social skills to see if there was any other possible benefit to having brothers or sisters." She and her co-author, Douglas Downey are sociologists at Ohio State's Marion campus, and neither is an only child. They presented their findings at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in August.The paper is in large part a reply to a previous study, Playing Well With Others in Kindergarten: The Benefits of Siblings at Home, also co-authored by Dr. Downey, which found that kindergarten teachers rated children without siblings worse in interpersonal skills, self-control and problem behaviors. But an only child isn't necessarily a loner and misfit. First, the social advantages found in children with siblings in the kindergarten study were quite modest. Second, the study relied on teacher evaluations, and teachers may not be reliable judges of friendships among their charges. And now it seems that any benefits documented in kindergarten disappear altogether by middle school. Using a metric called "peer nomination (提名)," Dr. Downey and Dr. Bobbitt-Zeher found that children without siblings had just as many friends as children with siblings. "I see the two studies as a natural progression, showing what happens to the only children who didn't have much interaction before kindergarten," Dr. Downey said. Another study he is working on shows that the same only children evaluated in kindergarten had caught up by fifth grade. While the studies don't examine the cause for the disappearing social boost to kindergartners with siblings, Dr. Downey speculates that continuing school, youth clubs and other group activities—especially in an era of overscheduled children—provide sufficient opportunity for onlys to sharpen their skills.

单选题 What is the stereotype toward children with siblings?

单选题 Donna Bobbitt-Zeher's new study is to find out _______.

单选题 According to the passage, kindergarten teachers' evaluations of the only children _______.

单选题 The "peer nomination" (Line 2, Para. 5) was used to _______.

单选题 What can we learn about the only children from the last paragraph?