for Mother's Day
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ALISON ASHTON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
SIBLINGS AND SCHOOL
arents planning a large
family should be aware
that the more siblings a
child has, the lower his or
her grades in school.
That's what researchers at
Ohio State University found af-
ter studying data from 24,599
eighth-graders nationwide. The
reasons are fairly obvious — par-
ents have less time and fewer
economic resources to spend on
each child — but the theory had
never before been tested on such
a wide scale. The effect of the
number of siblings on a child's
academic success (or lack there-
of) holds true regardless of the
parents' education and income
level, race or other socioeconom-
ic variables.
"Parents only have so much
time and money, and the more
children they have, the more
those resources are diluted," says
Douglas Downey, assistant pro-
fessor of sociology at Ohio State
University.
Economic resources, re-
searchers found, are the first to
decline, followed by "interper-
sonal resources" (talking to each
child about school, knowing each
child's friends by name, etc.).
Children in larger families also
derive fewer benefits from re-
sources such as books and com-
puters because parents don't
have as much time to spend help-
ing each child learn how to use
them.
Still, large families are be-
coming more of a rarity; the av-
erage number of children per
woman-has declined from 3.6 to
1.9 in the last 30 years. And Dr.
Downey thinks that may be a
good thing for children.
"In today's smaller families,
children are more likely to receive
undiluted resources than chil-
dren from 30 years ago," he says.
p
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Kids In Small Families
Make Better Grades
MI
Here's another reason to keep
apples around: Men's Health
magazine reports that the scent
of green apples may help relieve
claustrophobic sensations.
Dr. Alan Hirsch, director of the
Smell & Taste Treatment and
Research Foundation, placed re-
search subjects in a coffinlike
cylinder, then exposed them to
various smells. The people re-
ported that the smell of green ap-
ples made the tight space seem
larger.
Dr. Hirsch notes that this
could be good news for anyone
Alison Ashton writes for Copley
News Service.
selling a home. A basket of fresh
green apples can make small digs
seem roomier.
OUNCE OF PREVENTION
Patients with chronic illness-
es who have access to primary
care are less likely to wind up in
the hospital, say researchers at
the University of California, San
Francisco.
"The better people rate their
access to medical care in a com-
munity, the lower the hospital
admission rates," says Dr. An-
drew Bindman, assistant pro-
fessor of medicine and
epidemiology at San Francisco
General Hospital. "What's hap-
pening is we're letting some peo-
ple with chronic illness get so sick
that the only choice left for doc-
tors is to hospitalize them."
Researchers examined data for
patients hospitalized for five
medical conditions that can be
treated effectively with outpa-
tient care: asthma, diabetes, high
blood pressure, emphysema and
congestive heart failure. Dr.
Bindman notes that hospitaliz-
ing these patients is "a pretty in-
effective strategy. People suffer,
and a lot of money is wasted on
preventable hospitalizations."
Focusing on hospital admis-
sions in 250 urban communities
in California, researchers found
that hospitalizations for these
conditions varied dramatically
from one neighborhood to the
next. Follow-up interviews with
residents from randomly select-
ed communities confirmed that
difficulty getting primary med-
ical care led to more hospital
stays at least half the time.
PRICE OF SUCCESS
It takes confidence to find hap-
piness in success, and over-
achievers who still doubt their
abilities often are unhappy folks.
That's because there's a dif-
ference between overachievers
and high achievers, says Robert
Arkin, professor of psychology at
Ohio State University.
"Overachievers have a tremen-
dous feeling of self-doubt about
their abilities coupled with a
strong need to prove themselves,"
Professor Arkin says.
High achievers, however, like
their work and are able to enjoy
their accomplishments.
Professor Arkin's colleague,
post-doctoral researcher Kathryn
Oleson notes that overachievers
find that "when they reach their
goal it seems as though they're
faced with the prospect of having
to prove themselves all over
again." ❑