Assessing the Impact of the “Two-child Policy” in China: The Effects of the Second Child on the Growth of Teenagers

Purpose: China’s new universal two-child policy has brought a baby boom of the second child in 2016. With the changing family structures, elder children in adolescence may have more and more emotional and even psychological problems such as “two-child syndrome”. This paper aims to explore the “influence factors and mechanism of the second child on the growth of teenagers” and has great practical significance to promote the physical and mental health of teenagers and the harmony of two-child families. Design/methodology/approach: By means of literature analysis, in-depth interview, questionnaire survey and statistical analysis, the elder children aged 12 to 18 in the two-child family were taken as the main body of the survey, and an empirical research based on NLP understanding hierarchy theory was carried out. Major Findings: (1) The most significant influence on the growth of teenagers is the attitude of parents, and then the gender of the first child. (2) Parents’ favouritism towards the second child would lead to decline in the first child’s academic performance. (3) The higher the family income, the less the influence on the first child’s life. (4) When the age difference is large, the first child and the second child are not easy to have conflicts. Practical implications: Parents should try to treat any children equally. Parents should pay attention to the sibling relationship of their two children with small age gap. Parents who have two children with a large age gap should properly guide the elder child to help take care of the younger brother or sister. Originality/value: This study contributes to the growing literature focusing on the influence factors and mechanism of the second child on the growth of teenagers in the context of China’s new universal two-child policy. It adds some early empirical insights on the physical and mental health of teenagers in twochild families.