The one-child family is becoming the fastest-growing family size in many countries. Social psychologist Susan Newman, author of Just One, shares the abundant research challenging long-held myths that only children are lonely, selfish, or spoiled, and why the growing popularity of one-child families reflects greater parental and child satisfaction and ecological awareness. Highlights include: How Susan’s experience parenting four stepchildren earlier in her life and one biological child later in life shaped her u...
The one-child family is becoming the fastest-growing family size in many countries. Social psychologist Susan Newman, author of Just One, shares the abundant research challenging long-held myths that only children are lonely, selfish, or spoiled, and why the growing popularity of one-child families reflects greater parental and child satisfaction and ecological awareness. Highlights include:
- How Susan’s experience parenting four stepchildren earlier in her life and one biological child later in life shaped her understanding of one-child families;
- Why negative stereotypes of only children as spoiled or lonely stemmed from flawed early research and cultural bias;
- What modern cross-cultural studies reveal about only children being as well-adjusted and socially capable as those with siblings;
- Why mothers of only children often report higher happiness and lower stress than mothers of larger families;
- Why parental influence and home environment matter more to child development than the number of siblings;
- How the one-child family has become normalized worldwide amid rising costs, alternative life opportunities, and climate anxiety;
- Why pronatalist government policies are failing to reverse declining birth rates;
- What parents of only children can do to foster independence and realistic expectations for their child;
- Why the choice to have one child is increasingly pursued as a proactive, deliberate, values-based decision rather than a perceived limitation.
See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:
https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/susan-newman
OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance
OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.
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