One consequence of the decline in the relative importance of higher-order births is that fewer children will have to share parental resources with large numbers of siblings. lf, as many observers believe, such sharing contributes to physical and intellectual deficits in some children, the next generation should in this respect be much better off. Dennis DeTray, for instance, studied the relationship between number of children and amount of schooling that the children received and concluded that, on average, children in large families receive less education than children in small families, even after controlling for family in-come, the value of the mother’s time, and the education of parents (1978, p. 36).
The decline in the relative importance of higher-order births (and in the number of large families) has been more marked for nonwhites than for whites. During the 1940s and 1950s a non-white infant was much more likely to be the fourth, fifth, or even higher-order birth than to be a first-born. By the late 1970s the situation was completely reversed. The consequences of this large change for the educational attainment, health, and labor market success of nonwhite children may be particularly favorable.