Birth order refers to the order a child is born in their family. Birth order is often believed to have a profound and lasting effect on psychological development. Alfred Adler (1870–1937), an Austrian psychiatrist, and a contemporary of Sigmund Freud, was one of the first theorists to suggest that birth order influences personality.
He argued that birth order can leave an indelible impression on an individual's style of life, which is one's habitual way of dealing with the tasks of friendship, love, and work. Below are important and intriguing facts about the order of birth in your family:
1.
Charming: Youngest
children typically have it easiest in regards to discipline. As parents become
more laid back over the years, they tend to take it easy on the youngest child.
This often leads to your youngest being the most charismatic and charming to a
fault sometimes. Most people think that the youngest child tends to be the most
manipulative as they can charm themselves out of a situation.
2.
Creativity: As
parents have more kids, the more relaxed they become in their parenting styles.
This reduction of stress leads to more flexible and nurturing parenting skills.
Many believe that the
youngest sibling is regarded as the most creative. Considering parents become more flexible. It only makes
sense that they'd encourage their youngest to indulge in their passions.
3.
Duplication: This
may come as no surprise, but your middle child was
the first to be and most impacted by your oldest child. It's because of the unique relationship between first and
second that makes the middle child most likely to emulate the actions and
behaviors of the firstborn.
4.
Faithful: Many
believe that their sociability leads the middle child to be the best partner
for their spouse. They typically display a stronger sense of loyalty,
dependability, and commitment
than they're other siblings. The above mentioned qualities are perfect in a
partner.
5.
Intelligence: There
tends to be a lot of excitement about the firstborn being the most intelligent
child in a family. There is research to support that idea. The Journal of
Research in Personality published a study to prove it by testing siblings' intelligence. While they
found the oldest sibling to have the highest intelligence on average. It was by
only one point.
6.
Leadership: When
younger siblings are born, your oldest child will develop a sense of
responsibility to take care of them.
It's that nurturing mentality, and development of a parental role that leads
them to have strong leadership skills. It also leads to higher levels of
maturity and understanding of responsibilities.
7.
Leaving: Growing
up as a middle child could
have an effect on how far away a child moves away in adulthood. Being between the oldest and youngest child leaves the
middle child with a higher curiosity and need to seek a sense of identity many
believe.
8.
Relatable: The
oldest child’s inherent sense of responsibility and maturity often leads them
to relate better to adults. This means that they not only get along with adults
in flawless fashion, but they tend to prefer the company
of adults more than their younger siblings.
9.
Social: Middle
children are typically thought of as the most sociable of the children. This is
probably attributed to the fact that parents' focus tends to go straight to the
oldest or youngest. This leads the middle child to lean on their peers more frequently, which helps them develop strong social
skills.
“Birth order
effects are like those things that you think you see out of the corner of your
eye but that disappear when you look at them closely. They do keep turning up
but only because people keep looking for them and keep analyzing and
reanalyzing their data until they find them.” (Judith Rich Harris) [i]
 |
| Kinker kids (left to right) Robert the oldest, Kim the middle, and Jim the youngest |
[i] Sources used:
·
“9 Interesting facts you didn't know about birth
order” by Santiago Santa Cruz
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