Birth Order and Happiness Study

The order people are born in, whether oldest, middle or youngest, can have a major effect on their personality. The dynamics of birth order have long been debated in the scientific community. Some researchers are hesitant to assign and label specific traits to each family positon. However, most agree that birth order influences and factors into the adults we become. Birth order affects people in ways they are unaware of. It can form personalities and affect behaviors. Also, as a result of birth order, relationships and perspectives on life can be rather different between family members despite siblings having been raised together. Alfred Adler, a psychologist, believed that a child's position in the family greatly determines the child's personality

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.

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

The object of this experiment was to determine whether or not birth order actually affected personalities and to see if oldest/youngest stereotypes were true. Oldest children are said to be bossy and rule followers while youngest tend to be ambitious and outgoing. To find out whether or not these assumptions were true, ten people were asked a series of questions about oldest and youngest children and what it was like growing up.

According to Jeffery Kluger in his writings about birth order, firstborns, in most cases are smarter than the rest of their siblings that come along, resulting in an average of a 3 point IQ advantage over the next child that comes along. Firstborns tend to be overly responsible, reliable, and very well behaved because they get so much control and attention

If researchers hypothesis are supported and birth order affects first born children then, they will score high in Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, low in Openness to Experience, and Extraversion. Middle children score low in Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and high in Neuroticism. While youngest children will score high in Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Extraversion and low Conscientiousness. Current research will support the fact that birth order certainly plays a role as it pertains to personality and findings by Saroglou & Fiasse (2002) as well as Healy & Ellis (2006) supports the fact that parents expectations and treatment shape a child’s temperament.

A study done in Norway even showed that first borns had two or three more IQ points than their siblings (Ratledge, 105). First borns tend to outperform their siblings because they recieve unshared attention from their parents before their siblings are born. Also, when their siblings are born, first borns are often tasked with looking after their younger siblings. Both of these factors are responsible for making first borns more responsible and independent. This even boils down to the classic nature vs. nurture debate. Due to being born to older mothers, subsequent children are inherently at a slight disadvantage. Other than this, there is not enough information to prove that first borns outperform their siblings by nature. On the nurture end, it all depends on how the child is parented. Ashley Fitting, a mother of two, stated that, “I do think that I learned from having my first, and so my second is reaping the benefits of me no longer being a complete hopeless mess of trial and error” (Wallace). On the other hand, Amanda Rodriguez, a mother of three, stated that, “My oldest son is extremely responsible. He's always where he's supposed to be. He's very conscientious in school, and my subsequent children are just not like that”

There has been significant research over the past century in regards to birth order, however some conflicting results have been reported. A few common items have been found. Primarily, that first borns enjoy a more favorable position within the family as opposed to later borns (Kalliopuska, 1984). This is based on the variable of maternal warmth, which is how much time a parent spends with their child (Smith, 2014). On average parents spend 3,600 more hours with first and only born children as opposed to the ones who are born later (Smith, 2014). ) This could be the factor that is noted as the perceived maternal warmth that impacts the idea of the “more favorable position.” Another key finding is that first born and only children tend

The first journal article I found is called “Birth Order Impacts: Real or imagined? A Review of Literature Past and Present” and this article is very interesting because it details how research has proven that this in fact it is true. “Even Charles Darwin, the revolutionary biologist who proposed the theory of evolution based in natural selection, took a stance that birth order must impact how an organism travels through life” (Govek, 2012). The author also states very good points of research that has been done with infant temperament. “Starting as early as infant temperament, researchers have posed that a child’s later personality can be determined. Where birth order is concerned, it can have an impact on personality, as it has an impact on

The purpose of the study was to provide support that birth order affects one’s personality, and to challenge theorists who argue that the home environment has no lasting effect on behavior outside of the home .Data was collected by a survey of 900 undergraduates, in which their own birth order order, their best friend’s birth order and the birth orders of their parents were collected.Both romantic and platonic relationships were studied. The study concluded that firstborns, middle children, youngest children, and only children alike, are all more likely to associate with their own kind (eg. firstborns with firstborns). The study also found that family size may account for a linkage between birth order and personality. They concluded that the smaller the family, the less competition each child has for resources, the more successful the children will

Birth order is believed to influence many aspects of one’s personality. By research birth order it give an idea how I feel every day. For example me being the middle child. I feel like I'm independent, secretive, and being ignored my others and many more.

This characteristic is not only present in childhood, but as an adult middle children remain rational. Since the firstborn tends to get parental affection from succeeding in school, middle-borns focus on sports and the arts. Most middle children are the first to leave home due to their confidence of getting along essentially anywhere. They also put a great deal of effort into their social lives and keep their friend group harmonious. Middle children also lack direction. They are the least likely to get psychological help and when they do, they have numerous symptoms, including tiredness, lack of direction, feelings of panic, and worried about the future

There have been many studies conducted regarding the impact of birth order in multi-children families, whether it affects creativity, future success, intelligence, and overall happiness and satisfaction in life. It is popularly believed by laypeople that birth order and family size plays a strong role in the development and eventual personality type and success of each adult; however, while many studies have found positive correlations between older children and success, others have been inconclusive (Carballo, J. et al. 2012). While birth order may play a role in a child’s development, there are many other factors to consider such as socioeconomic status, parental favouritism, parental involvement, and socialization at an early age to name a few. We can go back to our ancestral days to look for clues as to why birth order may have a significant impact on the future success of a child. In ancestral humans, the most important thing was survival; there were high infant mortality rates and people were driven to pass down their genes, so parents were often left to allocate efforts to the child that would most likely survive to have their own children (Daly, M. Wilson, M. 1987, pg 93). This is especially important for fathers, whose paternity is not necessarily guaranteed, as is the mothers. Even today it is still very common for a man to leave a newborn child and the mother if it is even speculated that a child may not be his own (Schmitt, D. 2005, pg 250). Following this, we

Although no first born is the same as the later-born individual, they are still very similar to each other as the results show that the mean scores are very close. If given the full information of results there may be some differences in data compared to the mean scores. Another personality trait that can be examined could be curiosity or adventure: the results are expected to show first borns being very adventurous or more adventurous and the later-borns being less adventurous due to the first born receiving more discipline, therefore wanting to adventure off on their own, this can be shown with how firstborns in the class test are more independent. A different trait that could be tested is agreeableness to show the compassion of the firstborns and later-borns. It is expected that later-borns will have more agreeableness due to later-borns looking up to their older siblings and parents and not wanting to see them get hurt, whereas the first born will most likely get annoyed by having to share everything with younger siblings therefore becoming less

First-borns are normally natural-born leaders. They are used to being the center of attention due to the