Influences of Birth Order Intelligence and Academic Achievement: the Personality Characteristics - Research Paper Example

 The effect of birth order on children’s development has been the topic of study for a long time. Birth order has been studied as one of the factors affecting several different aspects of development including personality and intelligence. The way in which these aspects of development influence later life lead to the examination of the birth order therefore in such features of later life such as career choices and success, not only academic achievement. Due to the complexities of families and the many different ways in which family factors can affect development it has always been difficult to determine exactly how birth order as a single factor influences intelligence and academic achievement in order to make definite conclusions about the resulting effect on success in general. One of the major issues that complicate the effect of birth order in the family is the actual size of the family so that many studies look at both birth order and family size as correlating factors. Some researchers have attempted to separate out the two. The study of birth order and its effect on the person’s achievement begins with the description of the personality characteristics that have been related to the birth order. Alfred Adler was one of the first to put forward theories about family position and how it affects individuals’ experience and development. He suggests that “firstborns and only children tend to be more motivated to excel than later borns, and middle children are likely to be non confrontational and non-competitive”. Phillips and Phillips (1994). They go on to present Adler’s description of later borns as carefree, affectionate and persuasive. Kanchier writing in the National Post in 2006 sums up the characteristic of each birth order. “First –borns are generally responsible, assertive, task –oriented perfectionists and supporters of authority”. Middle-borns she describes as “generally independent conformists”. She believes that having to compete with their siblings helps to make them more diplomatic, even-tempered and less fearful and anxious. Middle-borns are thought to posses social skills that make them adaptive. They are also described as creative and intuitive. Later-borns however are thought to be less exposed to regulations and so are more carefree, precocious and rebellious. It is thought that parents have lower expectations of later-borns. These personality traits and other characteristics are thought to combine with the different treatment in the family to contribute to the academic achievement or potential of the children according to their birth order. According to Kanchier (2006) “A 2001 study reported in the Journal of Career Assessment, stated first-borns and only children tend to have more cognitive interests, while later-borns were more artistic and outdoors-oriented.” Phillips and Phillips (1994) report that research up to that time had shown that firstborns are “more likely to excel intellectually, have a stronger need for achievement, seek greater acceptance”. The research concluded that later borns tend to focus more on social life as they are more outgoing and tend to be more popular. The experiences in the family influence the academic achievement of the child and so it is connected to the birth order. The older child generally has different experiences than the younger child even though they are in the same family. Prof Zajonc suggested that the first born child has the opportunity to interact more with adults and so was exposed to a more sophisticated vocabulary than younger siblings. (Macleod, 1997). Another factor that influences the academic achievement and that is related to birth order is the fact that the older sibling also has the opportunity to tutor the younger ones and so this helps in his or her academic development; an opportunity that the younger sibling will not have. Zajonc further developed his idea into the confluence model. He suggested that the family structure- not only birth order, but also size of family and child spacing- is a major factor in the intellectual development of the child. Not only does the older sibling benefit from the tutoring opportunities, but the younger siblings benefit from the rich environment produced by having older siblings. (Rodgers et al, 2000). Yet another factor that has not been widely considered is parenting style. The way a mother interacts with the first born changes after the birth of a sibling. Baydar et al (1997) discuss how parenting style can affect the first-born and carried out a study to investigate this. They suggest that the quality and intensity of the interactions that the mother has with the child can decrease after the birth of a sibling. They report that as a result of this specific behavioral and emotional problems such as aggression and anxiety have been observed. The subsequent births of siblings also affect the opportunities that the first born would have had for developing certain skills. The activities that the mother may have been able to engage in and the interactions that she might have been able to have decrease with increasing siblings. Resources also diminish and so the cognitive development of the first born is limited. The emotional resources are also affected. “The affective quality of the relationship and the authoritarian quality of the mother-child interaction declines”, (Baydar et al, 1997). This results in decline in the positive interaction between mother and older child and the parenting style becomes more controlling. This is thought to be even more so when the spacing is short. The results of their study indicated that the increase in controlling style caused lower levels of vocabulary knowledge. Though there has been some disagreement about the relationship between birth order and academic achievement, in general research has concluded that later birth position is associated with lower educational achievement. The development of the research on birth order can be followed through the works of several researchers. Hatzitheologou (1997) started the discussion with the early work by Koch in 1956 which showed that first born children had better language abilities than later siblings. This was thought to be due to the fact that the older siblings had more direct interaction with the parents and therefore they imitated and adopted their parents’ speech. These results were repeated in later studies in 1971 and 1979. It was suggested that although mothers spent equal time with all siblings, the quality of the interaction was different. First borns usually get more pressure to achieve and succeed. Hatzitheologou carried out a study to examine the birth order and reading achievement of 503 elementary school children who were defined as either first born, second born or later born from public and private schools in the city and suburbs of Athens. The subjects were randomly chosen and given a reading achievement test at the end of the spring term. This study showed no relationship between birth order and reading achievement in the second grade students. With the sixth grade students however the first born students had a higher score in the reading achievement test. The researcher suggested that the younger children may all be getting the same amount of help with their work at home and that parents tend to read to younger children more. Thus the effect of birth order on the reading achievement may be modified by the family influence. An important study was carried out by Belmont and Marolla in 1973 as reported by Esping (2003). These researchers used data of family size, birth order and intelligence tests for a large sample of Dutch young men- a sample o f386, 114 subjects. They found that within each family size the firstborns always scored better on the intelligence test than the later borns. They also reported that although there were a few inconsistencies, there was a gradual decline in the scores with rising birth order. Some later studies were discussed by Fergussen et al (2006). A study done in 1995 found a relationship between earlier birth order and school achievement measured by grades and test scores in a sample of adolescents. This was similar to a study reported in 1990 in South Africa. Research on birth order continued through the years as reported by Fergussen et al. A study carried out in Poland in 2003 used data from a large representative cross-section of Poland. This study found that first and earlier born respondents reported a significantly greater number of years of schooling and higher levels of occupational prestige. And later in 2005, other researchers examined the effects of birth order on educational achievement using a sample in Norway. This data was collected from almost every single child in Norway. The study found that earlier birth position was associated with a significantly greater number of years of education. Following on the discussion of these previous studies, these authors carried out their own study to include looking at the effect of other factors on the birth order and achievement relationship. These other factors that they examined included size of family, maternal education and length of time the child was breast-fed. They generally found “clear and linear trends for declining birth order to be associated with increasing educational achievement”. They found an achievement measure that showed that the first born children had mean scores that were 0.45 standard deviations higher than fourth or later born children. They also found that family factors were advantages for the later birth, and other factors were disadvantages. Increased maternal age and higher birth weight were among the advantageous factors. And lower level of maternal education and lower likelihood of being breast-fed were among the disadvantageous factors. They summed up the conclusions by saying that “it appears that there are a number of family and childhood-related factors that may contribute to the birth order effect by being advantageous for earlier-born children, whereas others may compensate for the birth order effect by being advantageous for later-born children (p.136). The authors suggest therefore that the relationship between birth order and achievement may reflect the psychosocial context in which the child develops, rather than being a direct effect of birth order. Travis and Kohli (1995) carried out a study of the relationship between birth order and educational attainment. However the study was carried out with adults to diminish the family factors and to include examination of the effect of socio-economic status. They found that birth order had a negative impact on education, but that this result was strongest in middle-class. The authors suggested this might be related to the resource –dilution hypothesis as the wealthy have enough resources and so there is no dilution in the family and the poor have limited resources anyway. Despite the large body of research evidence that indicates that academic achievement decreases with increasing birth order, there have been some studies to throw some doubt on the theory. Hesta et al (1992) have cited some early american studies done in 1967, 1977 and 1979 that found birth order to be unrelated to academic achievement. They also state that some studies have produced mixed findings – some found different results according to gender with no birth order effects on males. Additionally some studies found a relationship with some aspects of educational achievement but not with other aspects. One example of such a study was done in 1981and found significant birth order effects in achievement orientation on competitiveness and educational aspirations but not on mastery and willingness to work. Another limitation of birth order studies is the lack of large data sets to thoroughly address the issues according to Black et al (2005). Most of the studies have been done with samples that are too small. Also many of the studies are done with children born at the same time so that the maternal effects for example may be different for the children. Interest in birth order and academic achievement and its resulting developments continues. Espring (2003) points out that first born children are overrepresented among such imminent people as Nobel Prize winners, classical music composers and prominent psychologists and suggests that this interest may stem from since 1874 when Francis Galton suggested reasons why birth order might affect eminence. References Baydar, N., Greek, A. and Brooks-Gunn, T. (1997). A longitudinal study of the effect of the birth of a sibling during the first six years of life. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 59 (4), 939-956 Black, S.E., Devereux, P.J. and Salvanes K.G. (2005). The more the merrier? The effect of family size and birth order on children’s education. Quarterly Journal of Economics. 120 (2), 669-700. Esping A. (2003). Does birth order affect intelligence? Human Intelligence. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/birthOrder.shtml Fergusson, D., Horwood, L.J. and Boden, J.M. (2006). Birth order and educational achievement in adolescence and middle adulthood. Australian Journal of Education. 50 (2), 122-139 Hatzitheologou, E. (1997). Reading achievement, birth order and family size. International Journal of Early Childhood. 19 (2), 14-21 Hesta, C. Osborne, G.E. and Nguyen, T. (1992). The effects of birth order and number of siblings and parental cohabitants on academic achievement. Individual Psychology. 48 (3), 330-348 Kanchier, C. (2006). Born to be: Personality and job traits can be linked to birth order. National Post. Don Mills, Ontario.October 2. 2006. Macleod, D. (1997). First born ‘best at exam’. The Guardian. Manchester June 20, 1997. Phillips, A.S. and Phillips, C.R. (1994). Birth order and achievement attributions. Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research and Practice. 50 (1), 119-125. Rodgers. J.L., Cleveland, H.H., Van den Oord, E., and Rowe, D.C. (2000). Resolving the debate over birth order, family size and intelligence. American Psychologist. 55(6), 599-612. Travis, R. and Kohli, V. (1995). The birth order factor: Ordinal position, social strata and educational achievement. The Journal Of Social Psychology. 135 (4), 499-507 Read More