So, does the eldest child really get all the breaks?
A new study claims that the order in which we are born is crucial for shaping our personalities. Chrissie Russell reports
Independent: Radio presenter Caroline Smith is a middle child. Photo: Ronan Lang
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Tuesday August 11 2009
It's amazing how a family gathering can throw you back into a childhood role you imagined you'd escaped forever. By day you could be a high-flying executive with 100 staff who hang on your every word, but when fortune places you back in the bosom of your family -- how long is it until you regress to surly teen, goody two shoes or family mediator?
Birth order and the effect it has on us has long been a subject of fascination for scientists, scholars and the public.
A new survey carried out by online parenting forum, netmums.com, showed that the majority of mothers believed their first-born child would grow up to be the most successful.
According to the poll of 10,000 mums, 35pc reckoned their first-born would be the family scholar while only 15pc backed their youngest. Most mums suggested that the reason for first-born supremacy was because they would put more time into ensuring the eldest did well.
So is everyone's success just down to a lottery of timing? Parenting expert for VHI John Sharry says definitely not.
"People have very strong perceptions about how birth order has effected them but from the scientific studies carried out, there's very little to suggest that it makes a difference," he explains.
"There's always a notion of the difficult middle child or the youngest that's used to having attention lavished on them, but the reality is that the impact of birth order is unique to each individual family."
And yet some of the evidence would appear to bear out the perceptions shared on netmums.com.
A study carried out by the University of Oslo among Norwegian military conscripts in 2007 revealed first-borns had an IQ on average 2.3 points higher than later-borns, enough to make a difference in college placements and grades. Typically, eldest children will go into serious professions such as law and medicine. Of the first 23 US astronauts to go into space, 21 were first-borns and the other two were only children. Half the winners of the Nobel Prize and almost 50pc of US presidents, including Barack Obama, have also been eldest children.
John explains: "There is an element of truth that people having their first child are learning to be parents. Parents might be more protective of a first child and more prone to giving them attention, whereas when the next child comes along, they might be more laid back."
He adds: "But the roles ascribed to children are very dependent on the parents' beliefs and the child's perception of where they fit in. The minute a parent has more than one child there will be some degree of rivalry.
"That's why it's important for the parents not to promote hierarchies or get into labelling or comparing their children. Birth order alone will not have an impact but a child's primary experiences will effect them the rest of their lives."
- Chrissie Russell
