So, parents can become a little bit lax in pushing the middle child to excel and do well in school. They put so much energy into the firstborn, now they just don’t have the same enthusiasm for child number two.
That means firstborns are taught self-discipline and to prioritize school.īy the time the middle child comes around, the parents are feeling a bit exhausted. For example, a lot of people believe that since the firstborn was first, the parents are usually very devoted and try to do everything right. Most people have stereotypes about what it’s like to be raised as a middle child. Of course, what science says and what popular culture says are very different creatures. When you add all that up, you get a childhood phenomenon that has so many moving parts that it is nearly impossible to study scientifically. So, it’s hard to compare one family to the next. Then you have the discipline and parenting styles of parents that can be vastly different from family to family. Plus, each baby is born with a different temperament, which has a very strong effect on a personality all by itself, regardless of birth order. For instance, the SES status of the family can affect the personality of the children, but SES usually changes from firstborn to last as parents climb the economic ladder. That’s a bit disappointing, but that’s the way the chips fall sometimes.Īs it turns out, it’s not easy designing a study that can evaluate the link between birth order and personality. All other links between personality and birth order were simply not there. What they found was a very small association between I.Q. Researchers at the University of Leipzig in Germany analyzed data from more than 20,000 interviews with people in Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. Probably one of the most comprehensive studies on birth order was actually completed just a few years ago. Some studies find very clear links between birth order and personality, while others do not. Well, scientific studies have found inconsistent results. With the firstborn being the leader in the family, and the youngest child being the spoiled one, then being mild-mannered and cooperative carves out a viable role for the middle child. In other cases, the niche for the middle child might be the cooperative one. They may be perceived as the ‘problem child’, but at least they are not being left out. So, if the other sibling is conservative and calm, then the way to stand out is to become the wild child in the family. This theory says that each child subconsciously assesses the dynamics of the family, and then figures out where they can fit best. Wavebreakmedia/ The Niche-Finding TheoryĪnother theory is referred to as the niche-finding model of birth order. And in still other cases, the middle child may become rebellious and prone to challenge authority. However, in other cases, the lack of attention could make them more competitive with their siblings to prove their worth. Some may become quiet sibling because they don’t have to deal with the same threats as the firstborn. Adler identified several quite distinct personality characteristics that could emerge in the middle child. The middle child, however, represented a more complex situation. The youngest child, according to Adler, is usually spoiled and doted over by the parents. At the same time, as soon as the second child comes along, the firstborn starts to feel ‘dethroned’ and pushed aside. They become more ambitious and determined.
Can Birth Order Affect Personality? Alfred AdlerĪlfred Adler, an Austrian medical doctor and later psychotherapist in the early 20th century, was one of the first to talk about birth order and personality development.Īdler believed the firstborn feels the most powerful. So, is there a middle child personality? Let’s see what the experts say about the personality traits of children based on birth order. There’s also been a lot of research on the issue of birth order and personality. There are probably as many theories as there are people you ask. Still, the issue of how one’s placement in the order of siblings affects our lives is something we all think about from time to time. Middle child syndrome is a term that emerged in popular culture, not from scientific studies or trained therapists.īut do we really need to attach the word syndrome to it? Really? How would you like to have a word like that attached to your status in the family? How about this: first-born dysfunction, or, last-born affliction? Doesn’t feel so great, does it?
Although the term middle child syndrome includes the scary word ‘syndrome’, it’s not an official psychological diagnosis.
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