How does the order of birth affect each person?

Some parents think that brothers and sisters often have different personalities, abilities, and preferences depending on its birth order. In addition, some people think that their brotherhood also affects their health, intelligence and personality characteristics. So, how does family rankings affect every person? A lot of research has been done to explain this mystery and scientists have discovered some interesting but controversial correlations.

Researchers acknowledge that sibling is an extremely difficult field to study and therefore, conclusions are still controversial to this day. There are many external factors around this topic such as the age of each family member, how old they are, how many children the family has, the gender of each child, the environmental situation. nurturing and many other socio-economic conditions. In fact, these factors are not easy to isolate in order to determine the impact of each factor on the brotherhood and from there, know the impact on each member of the house.

In 1983, two researchers Cile Ernst and Jules Angst conducted a large study, which lasted from 1946 to 1980 in order to find answers to these questions. Since then, many psychologists have minimized the role and influence of brotherhood for each individual. And some people think that it doesn't really affect everyone. But during the past four decades, many psychologists have continued to study this topic and until now, they have obtained some findings.

Order of birth and personality

Alfred Adler (1870 - 1937)

Alfred Adler (1870 - 1937), a doctor, a psychiatrist, founder of the school of personal psychology, was one of the first researchers to use the family's brother order to evaluate the mind. Management of his customers. And Frank Sulloway, a professor of modern psychology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), seriously tested the approaches of Alfred Adler.

In the 1996 book "Born to Rebel," Sulloway proposed five personality characteristics of each individual: openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and direction. Foreign (extraversion) and psychological instability (neuroticism). He said that the order of birth has a certain influence on all these characteristics. According to Sulloway, the first child will have more obedience, while the next children in the family will show higher creativity and tend to reject the imposition. He also found that people with the same rank in the family have more in common than their brothers.

Frank Sulloway, professor of modern psychology, who proposed five characteristics of human personality and influence of hierarchy born with these 5 characteristics

And the views in Sulloway's book have received mixed opinions, creating controversies that have not yet ended. The sociology professor Jeremy Freese from Northwestern University is one of the opponents of Sulloway's approach and he even suggested that Sulloway had faked the data. However, Sulloway's book sparked the birth of hundreds of other studies based on Sulloway's point of view.

In 2010, German sociologist Daniel Eckstein and his colleagues conducted a full analysis to verify and perfect the ideas of Ernst and Angst. Based on the results of more than 200 available studies, the team can statistically determine the influence of siblings on personality characteristics and lifestyle of each individual. They discovered that some personality traits are closely related to the rank of birth.

Statistics of 200 studies on the relationship between personal character and order of birth (The left column is the personality trait with n is the frequency appearing in 200 studies and the right column is the position that appears in the study. rescue).

Specifically, the first children tend to achieve higher results and success. Those who are the only children in the family always desire to achieve achievements. Middle children are usually close. And finally, the youngest children, often towards social communication. Below is a list of 200 studies in the group's database.

Based on the above table, it is clear that there is a link between family order and personal characteristics as well as career interests. A 2001 study also showed that later babies often follow artistic tendencies and outreach-related careers. Meanwhile, the first and the first children often pursue intellectually. At the same time, researchers do not say that this is an innate or genetic problem. They think this is the result of their parents' orientation.

On the other hand, family birth order also affects the competitiveness of people. Researchers have shown that the first children often pursue "mastery Goals " (Mastery Goals). Psychologist Bernd Carette at Gent University said that the cause of this may be because the first-born children have received different treatment from their parents since childhood, so they will use the same standards set by parents to assess their own abilities.

More interestingly, the birth order also affects how each individual looks outward. A study in 2013 found that the first child exhibited more ownership, while the second children tended to be more attentive when looking outward. On the other hand, the first-born children will be less affected and assertive than the second. Researchers argue that a strict and rigorous day-to-day feeding regime for the first child makes these children more obedient, and will refer to that relationship in social life as an adult.

Conflicts in research continue

In 1998, Canadian scientists surveyed 1022 households and found that the first children were more conservative, achieved more success and were more devoted than the second. The second children are judged to be more destructive, liberal and more pleasant. However, this conclusion is not really universal because it is based on assessments from family members themselves. Another study is based on assessments from non-family members such as friends and colleagues, and relatives say there is no difference in their brotherhood.

In fact, the contradiction is not too surprising. One problem that exists in both studies is that the assessment of personality 1 will be different when the assessors are parents, siblings, friends, etc. The reason is due to the birth process. live, the relationship between Mr. A and these people is different. At the same time, family members Mr. A will conclude about him differently from others. Therefore, scientists argue that maybe your hierarchy only affects that individual within the family, and that this effect cannot refer beyond this scope.

In addition, a study also concluded that brotherly relationships will continue to develop throughout life. This relationship has always been progressively proactively paralleled with social circumstances. These are changing needs due to the impact of social competition and biological needs in each individual.

Some typical relationships

Wisdom is the most controversial aspect. Supporters argue that the first children will have a higher intelligence test. One reason is that the first child receives more attention and resources from parents. The famous psychologist Robert Zajonc (1923-2008) added that the first child also demonstrated better verbal communication than the second child. The reason he gives is because the first one accumulates the adult language early and more than the first one.

Another cause is the family's socio-economic status. The smaller the family, the more time and resources from parents are brought to their children. At the same time, the mother's childbearing age can also be a factor. Young mothers tend to have low levels, low incomes but create large families, which in turn leads to resources for poorer children.

In 2009, a study led by psychologist Timothy Hartshorne reinforced Sulloway's earlier conclusion that people often have a lot in common with someone and a family hierarchy. Moreover, the relationship between two men and women with the same rank will be longer and more romantic.

On the health side, it was also found that the first-born child was less capable of absorbing sugar and had higher blood pressure during the day than the second. At the same time, the first child has a higher risk of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases when they are adults. Scientists believe that the cause may be due to physical changes in the mother's cervix during the first pregnancy.

The above are typical factors showing the correlation between the order of brothers and the biological and personal aspects of each person. Besides, researchers have shown many other correlations around this topic. At the same time, the published studies both received mixed opinions and controversies continued. Hopefully, researchers will soon be able to solve the same problem that remains as a scientific mystery that remains today. Hopefully the article provides some interesting information for you.