The impact of being an only child compared with having siblings (older, younger, or both; same or opposite sex) upon interpersonal competence and interpersonal orientation in late adolescence was determined. There were no significant effects of family size, ordinal position, nor sex of sibling upon social competence measures. Average spacing between siblings was also an unimportant variable. There were no significant differences between only children and other subgroups on social competence measures. Overall, there is no evidence from this large-sample study that family constellation has an influence upon social skills or family relationships during the late adolescent period.
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