We have grown up listening to stereotypes like the oldest one is the wisest one.
From generations, first borns have been held in high esteem in the families of several reasons which no one dares to ask why.
For an important decision to be settled we mostly look up to the first born of the family because somewhere the assumption stems that they are intellectually superior to their younger siblings.
The order of birth plays a significant role in how intellectual, dominance and authority is decided in most of the families.
A 2016 study published in the Journal of Human Resources has said that firstborns are academically more intellectual and successful than other siblings because parents tend to be more invested in them.
The participants of the study were interviewed since 1979
The study is based on the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of the Youth in which thousands of children in the US were regularly interviewed since 1979.
Information pertaining to employment, income, birth outcomes, and early childhood health were also included in the study.
“With each birth parents tend to relax”
“First-time parents tend to want to do everything right and generally have a greater awareness of their interactions with and investments in the firstborn,” co-author of the study Jee-Yeon K. Lehmann told TODAY.
“With each subsequent child, parents tend to relax to a greater extent what they might deem as non-essential needs for their kids,” Lehmann, who is also an economist at the Analysis Group in Boston told the media.
The study found that though parents give equal love to all their kids, the first borns get the maximum mental simulation.
”How much you take interest in your child matters a lot”
As per Lehmann, “All those learning activities that you did with your first child as excited, nervous and over-zealous parents actually seem to have some positive, long-lasting impact on their development.”
He told TODAY that, “The lesson here for parents is that the types of investments that you make in your kids matter a lot, especially those that you make in the children’s first few years of life.”
Researchers noticed a broader shift in parenting attitude
The researchers have said that the behaviour of the parents towards parenting their second child and those after that changed a lot after the first birth and that might have impacted the overall IQ of the kids.
Apart from parenting, the researchers noticed several other changes in the attitude of parents. For example expectant mothers were not keen in taking prenatal care or were not serious about cutting down their alcohol intake. This, they say, affected the investment towards the children born after the first born.
First borns are most likely to have healthier siblings
The study found that later born kids tend to be healthier than first born kids.
Though the elder ones have an intellectual supremacy over their siblings the latter ones have good health, the researchers have said though reasons behind this is unknown.
A different study in 2015 found that first born are more likely to be overweight and are unhealthy than their younger siblings. For the research in New Zealand a total of 13,400 sibling pairs were studied.
