How Birth Order Affects Who You Are

Does the order you're born in really affect the kind of person you grow up to be? Trace explains if there's really the impact people say there is.

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How Birth Order Affects Your Personality
"But when scientists scrutinized the data, they found that the evidence just did not hold up. In fact, until very recently there were no convincing findings that linked birth order to personality or behavior."

Birth Order Affects Child's Intelligence and Personality
"Birth order within families has long sparked sibling rivalry, but it might also impact the child's personality and intelligence, a new study suggests. First-borns are typically smarter, while younger siblings get better grades and are more outgoing, the researchers say."

How Your Birth Order Can Influence Who You Are
"As many parents can attest, siblings tend to be more different than alike. Some of this may be the result of our birth order, and how we're subsequently raised. What's more, birth order may influence our health and sexuality too. Here's what you need to know about how your birth rank affects your life."

That Elusive Birth Order Effect and What it Means for You
"Only child, first-born, last-born, or somewhere in between. Where do you fit into the birth order of your family? Perhaps you've come to believe the myths both in your family and in psychology as a whole that your character, values, achievement strivings, and life success are determined by the family position that fate, and your parents, awarded to you."

THE BIRTH ORDER EFFECT
"The order we're born in -- first, middle or youngest child -- is outside our control. So it can make us uncomfortable to think that our birth order can play a significant part in our success, our personality -- the direction of our life. Surely, these things are not set before we even get started?"

Birth Order: Fun to Debate, but How Important?
"The older girl was smart, neat and perfectly behaved in school; in her spare time, she won dance trophies. At every checkup, her mother would tell me what a good girl she was."

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How Siblings Rule:
How Siblings Suck:
The Introvert Advantage:
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[tammertx]

My younger sibling never had to go through the things I did like constantly getting in trouble meaning "time outs", being forced into taking a bunch of classes I wasn't interested in(martial arts, music, art, etc), not having as high of an expectation, less restrictions, etc. Seriously, I feel like being the first child is like being the "experiment" child....

[therougespartan]

Does anyone else have the problem that your younger sibling has more freedom than you did at that age? Example: later bedtimes.

[markmaharaj]

I'm a middle child, I am also anti-social but get over it by reading and youtube

[plangiQQ]

i want to sleep and your videos don't let me :(

[pansyflower]

Only Child here... Both of my parents were a lot older when they had me. And they both were from
I was a very intelligent kid, and most of my conversations were with adults. I had no idea what it was to be a normal kid

[zevun]

Oldest: smartest, strongest, most likely to succeed alone. Typically has a growing tension with the middle, and particularly unspecific emotional connection toward youngest, except for unprovoked hate.
Middle: less feeling toward first born mostly, but better relations with youngest. Typically very alike to first born if gender is the same, but feels a different way of physical activities than the oldest.
Youngest: lower ability to remember vital things, not allowing quite a success as the first born. Typically process of thought is nerfed in some way, but highest rate of happiness and stronger emotions towards one point.

[karouhitachiin]

im youngest, im selfless, smart, and socially awkward.

[sevensugarbabes]

Im middle and im far from sociable i find it hard to talk to people my age

[April-mqcj]

Okay so I'm the oldest. I have 3 younger siblings. One has autism (youngest) and another has anxiety. The last one doesn't have any problems that I am aware of. I always end up arguing with my sister. Now this is the part that drives me crazy. When we do so, apparently I am the one who was the rudest and such so I get in HUGE trouble while apperently my sister did absolutly nothing at all. The way I am treated makes me feel like I am apparently a villian while my sister is a little sweet innocent princess trying to make her way through life. It makes me so mad! Apparently I treat her like crap and I have no idea how she feels. I hate being the oldest. -_-

[isirlaughsalot]

Youngest ones unite!
I'm the youngest, but that not rebellious, and very introverted. I feel like I'm very creative, and I try to think outside the box in many situations.
My 2nd brother (middle) is the most sociable by a mile. He has almost 20 good friends that I know of, I have to wait for him to stop talking with others, and has more contact and discussions with people he just met than I have with them and I've known them for 5 years. But even then, he doesn't know where he belongs, as a senior in high school, he still has no idea of his passions, dreams, and what he wants to do with his life.
My 3rd brother (oldest) is pretty introverted, but is extremely smart. He knows so much stuff you always wonder how the hell he memorizes all of it. Every single class he's done he's gotten at least an A-, and he is aspiring to become a writer of adult fantasy novels.
I have 2 siblings in total, and because of this perfect youngest, middle, and oldest lineup, and how similar they are to these generalizations, I believe that birth order matters. I'll definitely will be able to prove it when I have kids.

[Drumwolf]

Totally incorrect in my situation. I am the youngest and the smartest and more successful. When you are the youngest you can learn from the mistakes your older siblings make and therefore that makes you wiser.

[bobbycelery]

I'm oldest and I'm very confident, loud, genuine, the "I know what you are really thinking" one who can understand everyone, higher academics than my younger sister and very strong willed.

[nicolesmith]

"Middles have a fear of not belonging, but are the most sociable"

LOL.

Out of me and the other two middle kids I know, that is the exact opposite.

We are the most introverted (unsocial) creatures to walk the planet... All three of us.

And we don't give a shit about not "belonging".

Most introverts do not care for "belonging" or "fitting in". We live in our own little worlds.

So this study got it all wrong for me.

[RitaRenaeMoulder]

I am the oldest. And I feel my mother was harder on me than she should have been. I also felt that, whenever I messed up, or misbehaved, that I would often be shamed in front of my younger siblings, thus setting some example as to what they shouldn't do. (even though they were more likely to get away with doing the same thing, the youngest one at least) However, when I became of age, I rebelled.  I dropped out of college, and (I'm not proud of this) would go out of my way to do the complete opposite of what I was told.  This caused a lot of tension and bickering between my mother and me. And I think alot of it had to do with this societal Idea that you have to be extremely hard on the eldest, and then lax off with each new child that comes around. Some parents don't even realize that they are doing this. 

[neuerehrgeiz]

I'd say no. I'm the youngest with 1 older brother. People have commented that my brother and I are like day and night, and most are surprised to find out we're related.
What they said here about oldest and youngest is the opposite for my brother and I. My brother is more "rebellious, " while i'm pretty vanilla. 
I think birth order has a place in getting a general idea, but as with many things in psychology, it matters more on an individual basis.

[donnaloveall]

being the youngest of seven and parents who could not have been less interested.
My older siblings were brutal and I learned to be rebellious.

[MinecraftEpicPlayer]

How come I'm the youngest, yet, am the opposite of what I'm "supposed to be".
No. Birth order doesn't have anything to do with anything. It's just scientists attempting to find patterns where they simply do not exist.

[tb]

I think it's nurture rather than nature. We treat each child differently as they are born. Parents get a little more and more lazy towards parenting the more kids they have. First borns usually get the most strict childhoods, as they are the parent's first attempt at setting rules and boundaries. Hence why they might tend to be more of the "achiever" type. Middle child gets a little more freedom, and the last child gets even more freedom-hence why they also tend to be more rebellious, creative, etc. Middle children fear they don't belong, probaabbllyyy because parents are fucking weird about their "first born" and the "baby" of the family. The middle child is literally forgotten about lmao. They probably fall somewhere in the middle of the first born/last born spectrum of things.

I really don't believe this theory is accurate at all with personalities-but I do believe it is accurate in other areas…strictly evolutionary, though. Your gene pool gets weaker and weaker the more kids you have, etc. I just think that if this birth order perosnality shit IS true, it is true because of what I stated above-nothing to do with nature, only nurture.

[creepis]

As the oldest of 3 i honestly im a silent type unless getting onto a topic that I know about. Then suddenly I have enough air in my lungs to spout a 10 page essay of information about the topic. Also i have more knowledge about electronics than my brothers

[VioletIceFire]

I'm first born and I have a 6 year younger brother who I have always tried to look out for. Everything I have done I always had that nagging thought in the back of my head about setting a good example and so I have always tried my best to do so but I often wished to trade places with him I often feel like if I was younger I'd have less to worry about less responsibilities weighing me down and could be given advice rather than facing the hardships first that allowed me to be able to give advice in the first place...