Sibling psychology

Scientists and researchers of psychology believe birth order has influence over the development of our personality though there are many other factors as to how you initially turn out e.g. relationships, life experience, DNA etc. The mixture of your sibling order whether being first, second, third or fourth child and how your parents treat you because of your birth order aids in your overall behaviour and has an effect to how you develop in your infant, teen to adult life. These traits may not be apparent with absolutely every child in correlation to their birth order but they are a common occurrence in their ranking or birth order.

First child
The first child is known to be the most adult like of all the siblings this may be because the parents are still learning the ropes on how to raise a child and want to get it right the first time so there will be more attention and one on one time with their child, being the oldest sibling they will naturally learn to be conscientious and develop leadership skills as they learn to look after their younger brothers or sisters acting similar to a surrogate parent which will give them a sense of responsibility and gain authoritative skills. With more overall interactions with their parents than the rest of their siblings first borns mature quicker and tend to aspire to be more driven, and ambitious and high achievers.

Because in their infancy they typically interact with their parents more it is arguable that they aspire to be like parents or at least want to replicate some their behaviours learning to be more controlled and understand tasks quicker at an earlier age. this translates to later stages in life in their careers.

Characteristics of the first born.

-More serious than most children

-Has a high sense of responsibility

-More adult like than other children

-Can be quite controlling over other children

Middle child
Because they are not the first child or the baby of the family the middle child often feels left out of place, they feel they have no real significance or status in the family so they of set out to make their own, this can be in a form of a rebellious streak, attention seeking or even extreme secrecy (think emo's). Though they do feel a sense of isolation they normally are emotionally savvy and have good intuition as some learn to play off their older siblings and learn to interact with their younger siblings.

As adults middle children generally are socialites and able to make friends with a wide variety of different people this maybe because of their challenging role in their family unit having no real role as the responsible first born who looks after the younger sibling s or the immature last born who gets a lot of attention by being the baby of the family, so having to work harder to gain attention this means creating their own ways of interacting with the family. As a result they learn to be in tune with their siblings emotions making them exceptionally good with people in the long run.

Characteristics of the middle child.

-Sometimes rebellious

-Outgoing and friendly

-Very adaptable

-Struggles for attention

-Risk taking tendencies

Last borns
Being the baby of the family the last born is know to be free spirited, creative and outgoing often they can be mischievous and quite aware they can get away with it, this is due to parents having a more relaxed attitude to his or her up bringing as they would have had several children already making them less authoritative to the younger children. Usually they are frequently spoiled and used to getting their own way making them quite confident in themselves in regards to socializing with other children and at times they are very charismatic. Generally quite happy as children they go through their infant years getting spoilt and being looked after teaching them that they can get attention at a whim, knowing this they get used to the attention and this carries itself into their adult years.

In their adult years last born's are very social, great at making friends and are charismatic. Used to getting their own way they love the spotlight, their careers usually involve people and socializing such as sales, acting, being a musician and television presenters.

Characteristics of the last born.



-Used to getting their own way

-Love the limelight

-Very sociable

-Can be quite self centred

-Can get bored quickly

-Can be charming or charismatic

Only children
These children by far out of the other children with siblings are very close to being little adults this is because they have limited interactions with other children, since they have no siblings they wind up learning a large chunk of their behaviour from their parents which explains why they are normally quite independent and controlled in comparison to other children. They are very mature, very responsible but they can be quite spoilt being the only child in the house and the centre of attention, this can make them demanding and self centred.

As adults they strive to be successful and often they are, this is potentially because of high exposure to adults at a young age, they also can be fussy and want everything their own particular way as that is what they are used to .

Characteristics of the only child.

-Gets along with adults easier than other children

-Natural leader

-High level of self control

-Can be demanding due to being spoilt

-Mature and responsible

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