Could Growing Up with More Siblings Decrease Your Chances of Divorce?

Could having more siblings guarantee protection against divorce as an adult? Not necessarily, but a new study suggests that it can't hurt.

According to researchers from Ohio State University, the difference between having no siblings and having one or two isn't that much in terms of divorce. However, each additional sibling (up to about seven) can reduce the likelihood of divorce by about 2 percent.

"But when you compare children from large families to those with only one child, there is a meaningful gap in the probability of divorce," said Doug Downey, co-author of the study and a professor of sociology at the university, via a press release.

"We expected that if you had any siblings at all, that would give you the experience with personal relationships that would help you in marriage," said Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, co-author of the study and an assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State's Marion campus, via the release. "But we found that the real story appears to be how family dynamics change incrementally with the addition of each sibling. Having more siblings means more experience dealing with others, and that seems to provide additional help in dealing with a marriage relationship as an adult."

Researchers looked at data from the General Social Survey, which involved interviews with about 57,000 adults from across the United States at 28 points between 1972 and 2012. Results showed that each additional sibling up to the seventh mark helped slash the chances of divorce later in life.

They also analyzed a variety of variables, including the role in future divorces, such as education, socioeconomic status, family structure, race, age at marriage, whether the respondents had children, gender role attitudes and religious affiliation.

Results showed that kindergarten teachers were more likely to rate students with siblings as having better social skills than only children starting in 2004.

While there tend to be many benefits of having less children during economic struggles, the study shows the negative aspects of having smaller families.

Results for the study were discussed at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.