Is your personality based on birth order?

It is a common stereotype that the youngest sibling is spoiled, the middle child is often forgotten and the oldest is the star child. But does the actual order of when you were born really effect who you are?

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According to Psychologist Kevin Leman, some common traits between each child are:

Oldest: The first born child tends to be more of a leader, due to being the oldest sibling, tend to be more reliable, and perfectionists. ” They are model children who have a strong need for approval from anyone in charges,” states Leman.

Middle: The middle child tends to feel as though they do not get as much attention. Because of this Leman says they tend to value their friends as more important. They are independent and tend to not be as open with others.

Youngest: The last born tend to be more social. They are often viewed as the baby of the family and so this causes them to be more spoiled. Leman states that the youngest of the family is more likely to be “financially irresponsible.”

Only Child: Only children tend to be like the oldest but more extreme. They are even more perfectionist and look to please others just as much.

Leman’s theories are similar to those given from others. Dr. Gail Gross has similar traits for oldest, middle, youngest, and only child, and so does Perri Klass M.D.

The information given by all three of these professionals all support the notion that “correlation does not equal causation”. Each personality trait of each child is correlated by what order they were born, but I do not think it is  an actual cause of their personality. There are many third party variables that can also affect a child’s personality.

However with the many observations that have been published I would say that there is a strong correlation between the two.

Resources:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/personality-traits-linked-to-birth-order/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gail-gross/how-birth-order-affects-personality_b_4494385.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/health/08klas.html

9 thoughts on “Is your personality based on birth order?

  1. Bria Marie Donnelly

    Your post interested me because I am the third of four children in my family and I am the middle child in terms of girls. I decided to compare the results of your finding to my own family. I definitely believe I am very independent and I also value my friends very much and I am a very private person. I do not however feel as though I am the forgotten child. I do believe that my younger sister is spoiled. I do feel like she gets treated like a baby and my mom gives her more leeway with things. I think my mom does this because she is also the youngest child in her family. I dont really see my younger sister being the most social out of all of us, I think my older sister and older brother are the most social. My older sister (second oldest out of four) fits the mold of middle child really well. My brother, who is the oldest, is such a perfectionist and likes to be the leader as much as he can. I definitely see these finding as more of generalizations than anything and it was interesting to see how well my sibling and I fit into them.

  2. Katherine Sharon Trimble

    As an only child, I agree with what your article states. I was very interested in this topic, so I began to research some personality characteristics. Carl E. Pickhardt, who has a Ph.D, wrote an article in Psychology Today that stated some interesting descriptions of why only children act in such a way. He said, “The only child is first and last child in one and so is the only chance at parenting the parents get. Thus they take this charge very seriously. Because they want to do right by their son or daughter, parenting an only child can be high-pressure parenting. They don’t want to make mistakes at the child’s expense and so are very conscientious and deliberate in their parenting. Usually the child feels a comparable obligation to do right by the parents. This is not a laid back family because everyone is trying extremely hard to do their best by each other.”

  3. Adam Greene

    I have two older brothers and I can not begin to tell you how accurate your post is. My oldest brother is definitely the leader and most mature out of the three of us. He is also reliable, cautious, and of course the GOLDEN child. My middle brother is 100% the more independent one out of the three of us. He does get equal amount of attention, but he is definitely the most different and of course… sucks! Finally, he is a huge people-pleaser, he always wants to make other people happy before he is happy. Lastly, being the youngest child, I can honestly say that the characteristics that you provided were on point. I am definitely the most spoiled and irresponsible. After doing additional research I saw that, according to Jocelyn Voo from American Baby, the youngest children are “fun-loving, uncomplicated, outgoing, and are attention-seekers.” Those are the words that describe my life. However, this might not be true for every other ordinary family. My best friend’s oldest sister has the qualities of the youngest sibling, while my best friend (who is the youngest) has the quality of the oldest sibling. It all depends on the family. By chance.

    For more information, click on this article: http://www.parents.com/baby/development/social/birth-order-and-personality/

  4. Ann

    This is a very interesting topic. I am the youngest of three, and we often debate these issues. What is interesting to take into consideration is whether the “birth order effect” is true for all families or just “functional families.” An article from Child Development Institute takes on the idea that while many siblings may see these traits in the oldest, middle and youngest, the family’s situation should also be taken into consideration.

    http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/birth_order/

  5. Nicole Glass

    As the oldest child I feel that I definitely fit into the description you have provided. I am curious as to why this is, does it have something to do with more time being spent with the parents before additional siblings came along? Or does it have to do with the fact that I was forced to learn how to do things by myself much younger than middle or younger siblings because my parents were too busy to do them for me? I am curious as to if a possible study could be done on this to see if the factors for these personality traits can be determined.

  6. jvh5620

    I am the youngest and my brother and I are 7 years apart. I believe that birth order does effect . I believe that I get away easier with everything that my brother could have done which he would have gotten in trouble for. My brother does take advantage of being the older one. He acts like he runs the house and is better than us ( but he’s not). For the most part, I do not believe that birth order has major effects of a person. In the end, every family is different and acts differently with their own rules. If multiple studies were done on this issue, I would definitely think that birth order does effect someones personality because there can be other variables that effect a personality of someone. According to this article, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gail-gross/how-birth-order-affects-personality_b_4494385.html, it goes through different stages and birth order matters in a different way for each child. Theres a peacemaker, life of a party, the only child..etc. Different names . Everyone has their own identity in their own family does something different.

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  7. Gregory Joseph Macqueen

    I am the oldest of 3 in my family and I do not see many of the effects of the birth order effect. Although I am the oldest and do feel like it is my job to take on more responsibility, I think these stereotypes are mostly based on opinion. I think that it would be very hard to perform a study on this because there really isn’t a way to get solid facts on this matter. Every family is different and each member takes their own specific role. In the case of my family I do not think my youngest sister is spoiled and if anyone its me (the oldest). I have never heard of my second oldest sister (the middle) talk about feeling left out and I think that is due to the closeness of our family. If a study were to be performed on this issue, I think it would be possible to say “correlation does not equal causation” but there are too many 3rd variables that can effect the personality of people. Below is a link to a website that discusses some of the possible things that can influence personality trite.
    http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/485/Personality-Development.html

  8. Elizabeth Ann Dixon

    I am one of four children and even though I try to deny it, I am the favorite child. I have two older siblings and then I am a twin. Technically my sister and I share the middle because I am the older twin and she is the second oldest. I do agree that she has “middle child syndrome” as some people call it because she always says how no one pays attention to her and what not. My oldest brother however does not abide by the oldest child effect. He isn’t very responsible or reliable so although we all look up to him in some ways, he’s not the typical perfect oldest child. And for my twin brother (and me technically), we are the “babies” of the family so our parents are more emotional towards us and we are slightly more spoiled than our older siblings. This article shows the birth order effect a little differently but I feel that your order is typically the norm.

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