Birth order and School Achievement
There has always been an attempt to figure out why some people do better in school than others. Is it due to financial stability? Is it attributed to parents’ own success as students? Very importantly, one’s birth order plays a role in one’s school achievement.
I. Theory
Growing up with siblings or the absence of siblings can be a major factor in determining academic success. Being the oldest, middle or youngest child does not necessarily determine academic success concretely without exception, but serves as a predictor of future academic success. School achievement is gauged by how far one goes in his or her education, starting from grade school, all the way up to graduate school. Before getting into the developmental stages across the life span and in the interest of time, I will only be discussing birth order in terms of the oldest child, middle child, youngest child and only child because configurations of five or more children occur only in 10% of the families with children. The average family in the U.S. has three (Toman, 1976). Also, I will be dividing the developmental stages into 3 stages: childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
Childhood (Ages 1-12)
The firstborn child is likely to have intensified feelings of power and superiority, high anxiety, and overprotective tendencies (Feist & Feist, 2002). The firstborn children usually have a close relationship with the parents than laterborn children. The child has the experience of having his or her parents to him or herself and tends to feel like a rather important individual (Forer, 1969). For a while, these children are only children until a younger brother or sister is born. They experience a traumatic dethronement, which may development resentment towards the new baby. During this time in their life, firstborns may be jealous and want to seek mother and father’s affection. When it comes to school, in grade school, these children will try to seek attention by being a class clown or a rebellious child. Education itself may not be of interest to them. Report cards may show poor grades and unsatisfactory behavior. This makes sense because before the younger siblings were born, the firstborn child was anxiously awaited. Parents are so proud of the firstborn as their “pride and joy.”
The middle child or s...
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...his or her final grade in the class. The students would then be grouped into categories of first born, second born, third born, fourth born, and so on. The students would then be ranked by grades along with their birth orders. I would try to determine the effect of birth order on school achievement. The professor would determine the students’ final grade.
Conclusion
Whether or not this questionnaire would find significant results for birth order and grades (school achievement), it would be a good way just to see whether there was a correlation. Ultimately, I’m not sure if this group of students would be representative of the population. The group I picked is in California, so it would not be representative of the entire United States. School achievement can be attributed to many things besides birth order such as social influences.
References
Feist, G.J., & Feist, J. (2002). Theories of Personality (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Forer, L.K. (1969). Birth Order and Life Roles. Springfield, Illinois, U.S.A.: Charles C.
Thomas Publisher.
Toman, W. (1976). Family Constellation (3rd ed.). New York: Springer Publishing
Company, Inc.
In this brief authors Epstein, Griffin and Botvin, (2008), Maintains that young sibling play an important role in shaping their environment. During an individual’s early childhood, attitudes and behavior is developed. However, the author believes that older sibling plays an important role in creating family standards and structure throughout the lifespan (Epstein, Griffin, & Botvin, 2008).
Prior to the first section of the manual, Dr. Spock speaks about the challenges of parenthood: accepting your child as he or she is, remembering to leave time for you and your significant other every now and again, and the possibility of raising a child with special needs. Because this is essentially a universal idea, it is relevant to the AP United States History course, like “history repeats itself.” The first section of the manual describes “Your Child, Age by Age,” beginning with the pregnancy phase, childproofing and preparing the home, a checklist of equipment to purchase, and reassuring siblings of the new family member and what it means for them. If I were the sibling, inevitably, feelings of jealousy will emerge, along with a small, guilty resentment toward my parents. However, just because the newborn will demand more attention from the parents, does not mean they will love the sibling any less. Challenges of having a newborn are discussed specifically, particularly feelings of initial regret by the parent and the baby’s individuality. These feelings of regret could be emphasized str...
Gennetian, Lisa A . “One or Two Parents? Half or Step Siblings? The Effect of Family Structure on Young Children 's Achievement”. Journal of Population Economics , Vol. 18, No. 3 (Sep., 2005), pp. 415-436. Published by: Springer . Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20007969. Web. November 10, 2014
The theory that Zajonc and Markus proposed was that the birth order of children was closely related to their intelligence ranking. Through their research they began to decipher and support this theory. Zajonc and Markus also presented the idea, “that as family size increased, the average intellectual climate of the family decreased.” In other words, the subsequent children are influenced differently than a first born, so their intellectual stimulation is more lacking, causing a decrease in the overall family confluence score. The researchers organized an experiment to explain this concept. The experiment consisted of two parents who each started out a value of 100 and each infant received a value of 0. As more babies were born, the family’s average intellectual value went down up until the fifth child where it picks back up again because the cognitive value of each child goes up as they get older.
The achievers, the gamblers and visionaries, and the undefined, this is how Jeffery Kluger describes the oldest, youngest, and middle child in his article “The Power of Birth Order” (409). The birth order is a phenomenon, studied by many scientists, that has been impacting the way siblings think and act for years. The birth order classifies the oldest child, who is the achiever; the middle child, who is a hybrid of the oldest and youngest; and last but not least, the youngest child, who is the adventurer of the family. The fact that the birth order affects the personalities of siblings is becoming more and more evident and the classifications of the firstborn, middle child, and youngest child have been proved to be very accurate.
According to Adler the first born child is usually a caring, nurturing individual because he/she most likely grew up helping his/her parents care for their younger siblings. For this same reason, first borns are more likely to be well organized and more responsible than their younger siblings. Sense there are no other children around when their parents give birth to them, first borns are used to receiving their undivided attention and affection prior to their siblings arrival, and if their parents did not prepare them for the arrival of a new brother or sister it can have a negative effect on the first born, mak...
‘Birth order theory can help explain why children raised in the same family environment with a strong genetic relationship can have such different personalities’ (Drysdale, 2011). The birth order theory says that ‘first-borns are leaders, the drivers and the responsible type. They love to feel in control and feel uncomfortable with surprises or feeling out of their depth. They are conservative in their outlook’ (Grose, 2013). The personality theory says that last-borns are majorly different to first-borns in their characteristics and traits. It states that last-borns are ‘the
“The higher the student’s social status is, the higher the probability is that they will get higher grades” (Mantsios 294). Today the patterns persist as Mr. Mantsios’ article shows “that of the students who took the College Board Exam (SAT) - the students who score lower points were of lower class whereas, the students of high class, scored higher on the tests”(Mantsios 294). Mr. Mantsios “compares a study that was done in 1978 by Richard De Lone for the Carnegie Council on Children, which showed a relationship between class and test scores to a survey done by College Board, thirty years later, to reveal that there is no difference; test scores are still linked to family income” (Mantsios 294). Mr. Mantsios states that class standing and consequently life chances, are largely determined at birth” (Mantsios
Does birth order really affect who we are? Sigmund Freud was the first psychotherapist to say, " a child's position in the sequence of brother and sisters is of very great significance for one course of his later life." The type of person that we become stems from many things including birth order position, gender and the genders of the other siblings. Although personality is affected by many different factors, such as heredity, family size, the spacing and the gender of other siblings, education and upbringing, birth order plays a very important role and gives many clues as to why people are the was they are. Dr. Alfred Adler, a renowned psychiatrist, wrote that a person's position in the family leaves an undeniable "stamp" on his or her "style of living."
The patterns of birth order have been seen for centuries, although it was not studied exclusively until around the 1980s. There are many factors that play into a persons personality, such as their genetics, the way they are raised, and their environment. Birth order looks at a persons place in their family—if they are the oldest, middle, or youngest child—and provides commonalities between them and others in the same location in other families. While there are many variations, the general traits do apply. Research shows that the first born is typically a leader in the family and in other areas of life. The youngest child is usually light hearted and social. The one that is hardest to put a type to is the middle child. He or she will frequently try to blaze their own path, straying from the one that their older sibling made. I believe that birth order plays a part in a person’s personality, but that the way they were raised is also a very important variable. A child’s birth order, along with the way they were raised, is a major factor in the way they interact within their family and other groups.
For this first analytical essay, I have decided to have a go at analyzing the Nature Vs. Nurture using my own viewpoint as a sibling. No doubt this is a topic that has been debated to mental death already, but I think it is something I will benefit from thinking about. Also, at the end of my main topic, I will quickly address a topic brushed on in the book.
In the research, they used 8716 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study, and replicated the moderating effect of SES on children’s intelligence at ages 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 12 and 14 to find lower heritability in lower-SES families. In the results they found a greater variance in intelligence in low-SES families, but minimal evidence of gene interaction across the all eight ages. It was found that there was no moderation of the genetic effect on intelligence, but there was a greater variance in low-SES families due to moderation of the environmental effects.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Since I am interested in birth order, and the differences between my brother and I, I chose to read an article entitled What Parents Learn From Experience: The First Child as a First Draft? Shawn D. Whiteman wrote this article, with corresponding research by Susan M. McHale, and Ann C. Crouter. This particular article explains the differences in parenting between two children within the same family that are about two years apart in age. The words describe what many parents learn the first time around with their first-born child, and how their parenting styles change with the second child. Parents tend to be more easy going with the second child, and therefore discipline is seen less towards the younger child compared to the older child. Also, this article explains that most parents are less worried about the older child when they are out of the house, compared to the younger child one. Younger children tend to be checked up on more then the older kids, but older children tend to have less opportunities then the younger ones do.
Birth order affects everything from personality and character traits to future relationships and career choices. The difference in birth order combined with how parents treat their causes the children to grow and develop differently from the siblings they may or may not have (Voo, Jocelyn). Family is the greatest influence on children growing up, and in what order they were born determines how their family treats them (Leman, Kevin). There are many contributing factors that cause children to grow up and become who they are, but birth order is considered to be one of the most crucial (Gross, Dr. Gail).
Sulloway, F. J. (September 1997). Birth order and personality. Harvard Mental Health Letter, 14, 5-7