Birth Order: Does is Really Matter?

Birth order theory was developed by research scientist Alfred Adler in the mid-20th century. Many of Adler’s claims remain true today and are often used in contemporary research studies. Adler believed that different birth orders created different situations to which children must adjust and that this adjustment may have an influence on personality development.

     Alfred looked at children's roles in their families based on their birth order to predict personality traits. He claimed that birth order has an unquestionable effect on a person's lifestyle in turn affecting aspects of their life like friendships, love, and career. He studied patterns of the role each child plays in their families and developed his theories based on the roles. He saw that because the oldest children are the first child, parents could be over-protective and demanding, resulting in the oldest child being a perfectionist and often affirmation seeking. Once the second child is born, the eldest is “dethroned,” resulting in the oldest child focusing their time on trying to win attention back from their parents and having the newfound responsibility of leading as an example and caring for the younger sibling/siblings. He claimed this resulted in the eldest having an over-emphasis on rules and a need for control.

     Middle children grow up with an example to follow and often are more established earlier in life because of this. They had to share the attention from their parents as soon as they were born, and Alfred believed this made them more cooperative and more susceptible to an inferiority complex and may have trouble finding their role in life. 

     Youngest children exhibit qualities that result from them being the “baby” of the family, according to Alfred. They were never dethroned as the oldest and middle were and, as the youngest, parents tend to pamper or spoil them. 

     Birth order was used to not only predict personality traits, but also things like friendships, love, and career.  Adler speculated that birth order differences would begin to disappear when families became less competitive and autocratic, and more cooperative and democratic. And just as he predicted, birth order theory doesn’t play as much of a role in predicting personality as it did when developed. Instead, factors including family structure, socioeconomic status, mental/physical health of other family members, gender, divorce, relationship status of parents, death in the family, and a plethora of other factors have a much more significant influence on personality.