has [tried] to cope with the little emperor problem through frequent cautionary stories in the press." These stories depict children hanging themselves after being denied sweets and cases of matricide in retribution for a scolding or late dinner. The discussion of little emperors has saturated public discussion concerning the one-child policy in Chinese and international media. Psychological studies do not support this view or, at best, offered mixed results. Results from earlier studies are inconsistent with some more recent studies that suggest there are no reliable differences between only children and those with siblings. However, a survey published in 2013 on 431 Beijing adults finds that those who had grown up after the introduction of the one-child policy were lacking "entrepreneurial drive and the willingness to take risks". This even had a significant impact on career choices. Prevalence Peter Hessler, who worked as an English teacher in China in periods from the 1990s until 2020, argued that "I saw few signs of Little Emperor syndrome, which seems to be based primarily on a Western imagining of what an only-child society might be like." See also Chinese kinship Princess sickness References Chinese culture Culture-bound syndromes One-child policy Parenting Stereotypes of East Asian people Upper class Upper middle class