Younger sibs do get the shaft

Jen Eyer | By Jen Eyer |
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on February 12, 2008 at 2:30 PM, updated February 12, 2008 at 2:37 PM

A new study suggests a reason why eldest children tend to have higher IQs:

New research from Brigham Young University shows that first-born children get about 3,000 more hours of quality time with their parents between ages 4 and 13 than the next sibling gets when they pass through the same age range.

The study provides a possible explanation for why older children tend to get more education, make more money and score higher on IQ tests. BYU economics professor Joseph Price conducted the analysis, which appears in the new issue of the Journal of Human Resources.

"We've known for a long time that eldest children have better outcomes, and these findings on quality time provide one explanation why," said Price, who used data from the American Time Use Survey, a federal government study involving 21,000 people.

Wes does get less quality time than Belle did at his age. In the fall, though, we'll start catching up a bit with him, since Belle will be in kindergarten and I'll still be staying home. I've been starting to feel a little anxious about that -- about not going back to work and not having the preschool work to do, since Wes won't be in preschool yet. I keep forgetting that I'll probably get involved in the PTO at Belle's school, and that it'll be really good for Wes to get a lot of one-on-one attention.