Is there enough evidence to recommend that parents have more children? A class discussion

In this New York Times op-ed piece (gifted to you), economist Catherine Ruth Pakaluk makes an interesting observation (Pakaluk, 2026). “[A]fter years of interviewing parents of large families,” she writes, “Some of what shapes a child can’t be supplied by parents at all, no matter how attentive or well resourced. It comes from siblings” (Pakaluk, 2026)

Pakaluk argues, “In many large families, everybody shares a room; small disputes have to be hashed out; older children naturally take responsibility for younger ones. ‘There are tons of opportunities for them to be self-sacrificing and patient and charitable,’ said one mother, a former litigator with six children, adding, ‘just endless opportunities for conflict and resolution’” (Pakaluk, 2026).

I shared this article with a friend. She noted that there were indeed endless opportunities for conflict and resolution with her sister. In my own family, my brothers had endless opportunities for conflict and resolution, right up until early adulthood when they stopped talking to each other. Their many conflicts ended with the ultimate resolution.

In Pakaluk’s interviews, parents of larger families found that older siblings took on helping care for younger siblings, and that that care benefited the older siblings. Pakaluk writes, “[M]other after mother described some version of the same dynamic — a struggling older child steadied, sometimes significantly, by the responsibility and tenderness of caring for a younger one” (Pakaluk, 2026).

Based on her interviews, Pakaluk suggests that parents consider having larger families. This is a pretty big ask based on anecdotal evidence. I’m certain that we could, for example, match each anecdote with one where the larger family had negative outcomes for the siblings. Pakaluk notes that parents were sharing their larger family success stories unbidden; she wasn’t asking for them. It’s likely that there were several parents of large families who had much less positive stories, but since they weren’t asked, they may have been disinclined to share.

Class discussion

Before class, ask your students to read the article (Pakaluk, 2026). Or, if you prefer, give your students 10 minutes in class to do so.

In small groups, ask your students to discuss the following questions (without the help of AI).

1. The author advises parents to consider having larger families. Would you give the same advice based on the evidence provided? Why or why not?
2. The author argues that there are many benefits to siblings of large families. What are those benefits, according to the author?
3. Design a study that would provide evidence of those benefits.

As an out-of-class assignment, consider asking students to use their preferred AI bot to identify peer-reviewed research that may have already looked into the benefits to siblings of large families. Before submitting their results to you, ask your students to evaluate the relevance of each peer-reviewed study, e.g., highly relevant, moderately relevant, barely relevant, not at all relevant. After reviewing the AI-generated results, would students recommend that parents have many children?  

Reference

Pakaluk, C. R. (2026, June 29). Life is better with siblings. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/29/opinion/siblings-families-shrinking.html