Birth Order and Personality

Whether a person is the first-born child, the middle-child, last-born, or an only child has an effect on their personality. Dr. Kevin Leman, a psychologist who has studied birth order since 1967 and author of The Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are, says, “The one thing you can bet your paycheck on is the firstborn and second-born in any family are going to be different.” It is not being the firstborn child that made you be more reliable and driven or being the last born child that allowed you to be more creative and irresponsible, it is how you are treated as the firstborn, middle child, or the youngest that makes you those such things.

First Born Children

More than half of United States presidents have been firstborns. Firstborns have also account for two-thirds of entrepreneurs, two-thirds of the people in Who’s Who, and 21 of the 23 first astronauts to go into space; the other two astronauts were only children (Murphy). A child is treated differently if they are the oldest; more is expected of them. “They’re guinea pigs of the family. Mom and dad practiced on them. They’re held to a little higher standard than the rest of us. They’re reliable, conscientious, list makers. They don’t like surprises. They’re natural leaders,” said Dr. Leman in a recent telephone interview. “There’s not a first born living that hasn’t had their mom or dad say to them, ‘I don’t care what she did, you are the oldest. I expect more out of you young woman or young man (Rutherford).’” Because more is expected of firstborn children, they often expect more of themselves later in life. Firstborns often try to please everyone and can be worriers (Haines, 2005).

Firstborn children are the most intelligent, responsible, obedient, stable, the least emotional, and the least creative (Herrera, Zajonc, Wiezczorkowsk, & Cichomski, 2003). Firstborn children also are high achievers, conformist to parental values, dependent on approval of others, least conventional sexually, most likely to be a leader, most vulnerable to stress, self-disciplined, responsible and conscientious, competent and confident, conservative toward change (Eckstein, 2000). They are also shown to have the highest IQ, greatest academic success/fewest academic problems, greatest fearfulness in new situations, earliest sexuality, mature behavior, easiest influence by authority, highest self-esteem, highest percentage of Type A behavior and coronary heart disease, highest percentage of frightening dreams, and higher narcissism (Eckstein, 2000).

Middle Children

Middle children tend to be more social because parental attention usually goes to the firstborn or the baby of the family. Generally, middle children are people-pleasers, somewhat rebellious, and good listeners. They are often less driven than the first child but are still competitive,