usted than middle-born children, are most likely to experience feelings of inadequacy. Only children tend to desire being the center of attention, have feelings of inferiority, and tend to be selfish in regard to sharing personal belongings. Although these personality traits are widely accepted, a national sample by the Academic Advancement of Youth of John Hopkins University found little relationship between birth order and personality. However, a mild relationship between birth order and perfectionism was evident, (Parker 29). Family size is more commonly accepted as a contributing factor to birth order positions. If birth order is held constant, the larger the size of a family tends to be represented by a lower average IQ. First-born, as well as only children are often believed to have superior intellectual development, which can be explained by the greater amount of attention and verbal attention given by parents. This makes sense because parents of first-born and only children are able to focus more of their time with these children. A 1997 survey discovered the impact of a sibling born during the preschool and early grade school years. The first-born child was significantly affected by the birth of a sibling, which resulted in an increase in emotional problems leading to an increase in behavioral problems during the first year. In addition, the learning development of the first-born child significantly decreased due to the substantial changes in the child’s learning environment (Baydar, Hyle, &Brooks-Gunn, 1997, p. 964). First-born children tend to speak sooner than later-born children and have a verbal style known as referential. They are able to more easily learn and speak nouns and put two or more words coherently together. Later-born children are referred to as expressive because their first words often reflect social interactions they have picked up from their parents speaking with the older children, (Graeb...
