The Impact Of Being An Only Child On Rural Teenagers’ Cognitive Ability And Non-cognitive Ability

Rural families adhere to the concept of having more children and more happiness.In addition,insufficient investment in rural education infrastructure,low income of rural families and weak teachers in rural schools will lead to a serious scarcity of rural education resources,especially the effective allocation of resources in rural families with more children faces greater challenges.At the same time,existing studies have shifted from previous academic achievements to focus more on the development of adolescents’ cognitive and non-cognitive abilities.Therefore,this study attempts to answer the following two questions: First,does the only child promote or inhibit the development of rural adolescents’ cognitive and non-cognitive abilities? Second,is there heterogeneity in the effect of only child on different groups of rural teenagers? The answers to the above questions are of great significance for understanding the formation and development of rural adolescents’ human capital from the perspective of the number of children in a family.Based on resource dilution theory,quantity-quality trade-off theory and communication interaction theory,this study firstly analyzes the impact of only child on the cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of rural adolescents from the theoretical level.Secondly,based on the data of China Education Panel Survey(CEPS)in the 2014-2015 academic year,on the basis of descriptive statistical analysis of the status quo of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of only child and rural adolescents,the influence of only child on cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of rural adolescents is empirically analyzed by ordinary least squares(OLS).The Heckit model was used for endogeneity test.Finally,the heterogeneity analysis is made for the rural youth groups with different characteristics.The main research results show that:(1)The only child significantly promotes the development of rural adolescents’ cognitive and non-cognitive abilities.Compared with rural adolescents in non-only child families,rural adolescents in only child families have significantly higher cognitive and non-cognitive abilities.(2)The effect of only-child has group heterogeneity among rural adolescents.In terms of the cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of rural adolescents,the effect of only one child was only found in the girls from intact families with strict parental discipline,and was not significant in the boys from single-parent families with lax parental discipline.(3)From the perspective of family characteristics,family education investment has a positive impact on rural teenagers’ cognitive ability,and higher education aspiration of parents is conducive to the development of cognitive and non-cognitive ability;From the characteristics of schools,the enrollment rate can significantly improve the cognitive ability of rural teenagers,while teachers’ attention is high,and rural teenagers’ non-cognitive ability will be improved accordingly.Based on the above analysis,the following policy implications are drawn: make up for the lack of rural family resources;Improve parental supervision;Optimize the investment in family education;Improve the faculty of rural schools.