How Important is Birth Order?

How important is birth order and does birth order really affect your personality? You’ve probably heard it before- if you’re a first born in the family you’ll be the reliable, smart, and responsible one while your baby sister who was last born will be the easy going, wild child who is always seeking attention. If there is a middle child she or he will be the peacemaker of the family.

But is this really true? And if it is true why is birth order important? In 1967 Dr. Kevin Leman wrote The Birth Order Book: Why You Are The Way You Are and it has been the standard in birth order ever since.

While there certainly does seem to be similarities between persons who were born first, middle, last or only it may have less to do with birth order than birth number. A child who is an only child will generally come from a family of means and more time which might be the reason they are more industrious while a child coming from a family of many siblings has limited resources and gets less of the slice of the parent’s time and attention – which may be why they seek attention or take more risks.

According to the article How Birth Order Affects Your Personality by Joshua K. Hartshorne, that is likely the reason for the differences rather than mere birth order.

Which may not be saying anything we didn’t already know. It is not the mere act of being born first that makes us more responsible but the fact that because we were born first we are expected to care for other siblings that come along. A middle child is the peacekeeper because he or she will have to side with one sibling or another for various conflicts that arise and that can be a difficult situation for some so keeping the peace is more important.

Does birth order affect your personality? Certainly it does but maybe not for the reasons we would like to believe.