China's One Child Policy Essay

For centuries, China has been one of the most populated nations on Earth. In the past century, China has implemented new policies to limit the population growth, with the most famous one being the One Child Policy. In the past, Mao Zedong encouraged large families and abortions and contraception was outlawed. Naturally, this caused a surge in population. After his death, Deng Xiaoping decided that the population would have to be curbed if China wanted to achieve economic growth. [1]

The One Child Policy is basically where in most circumstances, people are only allowed to have one child. There are exceptions that allow people to have more than one child, including the first child being unable to work because of a non-hereditary disease, both parents being only children, farmers who are poor and depend on children to help them, and people who are an ethnic minority. [2]

Negative Impacts

Although the One Child Policy has achieved its main goal of curbing the population, it has come under fire for being a

Children without siblings tend to face more pressure from parents, because all the pressure goes to one child. If a child has siblings, the pressure given is spread out among the siblings. There is also a difference in personality. A psychologist of the Australian National University in Canberra recruited over 400 Chinese young adults and gave them a number of surveys and tests that tested a variety of psychological traits. The study found that participants born after the One Child Policy went into effect were less trusting, less likely to take risks, less conscientious, less optimistic and less competitive. Psychologist Xin Meng says that the One Child Policy has led parents to not teach their child about being imaginative, trusting and optimistic.