Birth Order Effects More Than Thought

Parents’ own birth orders and children experience can impact family dynamics, such as, firstborn parents getting into “raging battle” with a firstborn child, youngest-born parents not having high expectations on their kids or seeing their children’s abilities, biases based on their own birth positions, sticking up for the children with the same birth order, and birth order affecting the children’s personalities.

For the oldest child, or first borns, according to Eckstein’s findings, at least two researchers attributed each of 26 different characteristics to these individuals. The six most frequently appearing attributes were highest achieving, highest IQ, greatest academic success, highest motivation and need for achievement, overrepresented among learned groups, and most affiliative under stress. All of these personality attributes can be used to relate to the findings from the first study, Birth Order and Happiness: A Preliminary Study by G. Hugh Allred & Bernard E. Poduska. The first borns of each family likely have higher levels of satisfaction due to these similar personality attributes. The majority of those individuals who are highest achieving usually are those who are most satisfied with their lives. This could be one of the reasons that the first borns scored the highest on the majority of question in the study conducted by Allred and Poduska.

According to Alfred Adler, the birth order of the children in a family will largely affect how they age and the personalities which they will form. First borns enter the family as the only child. They revel in the love and full attention from their parents, that is, until the second baby comes along. Suddenly, first borns are dethroned and lose the undivided attention they are used to receiving. As a result, they tend to develop a strong sense of responsibility and protectiveness over their siblings at an early age, which often leads to them becoming authoritative adults. Moreover, when there are multiple children in the family, parents will set high

Birth order is addressed as the arrangement of births of children in a family. The four most common positions used in the Birth Order Theory of Alfred Adler are: only child, first born, middle child and last born. Adler associated those birth order positions with different characteristics for each. He also explained that with every child that will be added to the family there will be an effect for each family member in terms of communication, tasks and duties. (Craighead 2001)

Though there are specific temperaments and personality traits commonly found in each birthplace, it does not signify that each characteristic perfectly fits a single child or adult in that order. Many variables interfere with the general traits found in each birthplace and can easily change the personalities of that specific order. A complete change in birth order characteristics can also result from these specific interferences. Both circumstances in the outside and inside world take effect and are called the variables of birth order. These variables are very important to keep in mind while looking at this subject. Dr. Kevin Leman, an internationally renowned psychologist, and New York Times Bestselling Author, lists some of the major variables found in many children and adults in his book The Birth Order Book. The spacing of up to five years or more, gender, physical and mental disabilities or difference, deaths in the family, and also spacing will interfere and alter the personality traits found in each birth placement. This list of variables can continue on, but looking at these can provide insight to those dealing with doubts towards their specific birth order or where they may fit

In Birth Order, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience, Matthew D. Healey, and Bruce J. Ellis set out to test specific personality traits that were potentially affiliated with the firstborn and second-born siblings within the same family, and whether birth-order effects existed, and based it off of a proposal that was presented by Frank Sulloway. Sulloway claimed that personality is influenced through certain alcoves siblings obtained to acquire parental resources. Because of this, he stated that a significant developmental challenge that the younger sibling had to overcome was finding a niche that was not already occupied by the older sibling. As a result, Healey and Ellis tested Sulloway’s claim that firstborns are more achieving

I learned from this articles that how birth order will affect every child life , I grow up with four siblings and I was the oldest one and that put a lot of responsibility on me and that affect my life and my education , when I get graduate from my high school I run into the first responsibility in my life when I found there is only one source of income and we are a family of six , I started my first job and left my school to take care of my Siblings ,after that get a second part time job in evening to help my family

Numerous factors are involved in one's growth; shockingly, even birth order affects development. In my family, I am the youngest of two children. My elder brother and I are only 16 months apart, so we argue more than siblings with a larger age gap would. Ordinarily, the first child is mature and adult-like while the younger child is free-spirited; the opposite is accurate for my family. Due to my interest in studies since childhood, my parents naturally encouraged me, whereas, Nikhil (my brother) was not as invested in academics and had additional free-time. The extra pressure has made me emotionally worried because I constantly stress to uphold those expectations. Cognitively, I analyze information like an adult My brother's nature has made

Many of the television shows that we have come to know and love include a family with a few siblings. Most of the time, they show the complex relationship that the siblings have. The oldest child is usually the most responsible, while the youngest may be outgoing, but feel inferior to their older siblings. The middle child many times feels sandwiched and takes on the roles of both the first and the last child. This is because the order in which an individual is born into a family has a large impact on his or her social and mental development. Alfred Adler was the man who introduced the world to the study of birth order. His research said that the order in which a child is born has a major impact on their development. The focus was not on the

The argument over the relationship, if any, between birth order and intelligence has sparked ongoing interest over the past century from both the general public as well as many notable scientists. Scholastic interest in the association between birth order and intelligence dates back to 1874 with Sir Francis Galton’s English Men of Science: Their Nature and Nurture. Galton, an English anthropologist and youngest of nine children, analyzed a small sample of 19th century English scientists and found the majority to be first-born children. Galton then theorized that first-born children received special attention from their parents that allowed cognitive growth. After much subsequent research and heated debate during the past century over Galton’s

The authors explain how the firstborn child experiences the “only child life” and is centre of attention until the second-born child arrives. Due to this, firstborns are more likely to be more conscientious and socially dominant, but less agreeable and open to new experiences than lastborns. This can also occur because youngest siblings were more likely to feel inadequate compared to eldest siblings. With the strength being put on these subject matters, the authors fail to emphasize how middle children are impacted by birth order and if they would score similar to the firstborn, lastborn, or exhibit traits from both. Moreover, the authors de-emphasize the role of the parents on the impact of the child’s behavior. Throughout the journal, the authors make the assumption that families have a firstborn and a lastborn, and do not discuss personality traits of single children or middle children. In regards to bias in the journal, I believe that there isn’t any because the authors use evidence from trials to show the relationship between firstborns and lastborns and how this can lead to academic

Sulloway used an evolutionary perspective and believed that children were motivated by investment from their parents and strived to receive the attention from them (Marini & Kurtz, 2011). A five factor model was used by Sulloway to study these personality traits. The five factor model included extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience (2011). Several researchers continued to use the five factor model to study birth order (2011). Some of these reporters used self reporting which resulted in inconclusive results. Others used peer reporting which showed high results in openness and agreeableness due to the nature of those that participated in the study (2011). Studies done with parents showed more reliable results than self reported studies (Marini & Kurtz, 2011). The study preformed in the article includes all of these previously used methods to provide more conclusive results

The debate between whether there is a correlation between familial birth order and specific personality traits, such as intelligence, success, and social skills, has been discussed and argues since 1874, where Francis Galton started to first look at the subject. The birth order’s impact on the individual is a subject that still is questionable on whether it exist or not to this day. There are plenty of studies that argue for and against this correlation, but the real question is which is right? Through this study I will look to try and reassure a reassure a correlation between birth order and personalities traits, through examining the main focus question, how does birth order influence the personality and learning styles of an individual?

Society can influence your identity by birth order. Oldest children or firstborns like taking charge and are bursting with confidence. The author writes that firstborns often become perfectionists and over-achievers due to the desire to mirror their parents. The author states that older children are more motivated to achieve because they have no older siblings to compete or be made fun of by(is the oldest child likely to be president)(13-15).This passage shows how most firstborns.

Although there are a number of scientists supporting for the idea of being the firstborns is beneficial and advantageous, recent studies assert that the effects of birth order no longer are significant. The children’s intelligence depends on many factors such as family size, child spacing, prenatal factors, gestational factors, not only birth order