Author(s)

Xiaoming Yan

Corresponding Author

Xiaoming Yan

ABSTRACT

In this paper, the influence of sibling structure on middle school students' cognitive ability and its internal influence mechanism are comprehensively discussed based on the data of China education follow-up study. The results show that: (1) The number of siblings, birth order and gender composition all have significant effects on the cognitive ability of middle school students; (2) The sibling structure affects the cognitive ability of middle school students by affecting the family economic input and non-economic input. Moreover, the effectiveness of non-economic input in explaining the cognitive ability of middle school students is significantly higher than that of economic input. Educational expectation is particularly crucial to the improvement of cognitive ability of middle school students.

KEYWORDS

Sibling structure, Cognitive ability, Economic input, Non-economic input