scientists say the oldest child is
basically the best at everything
but I already knew that being the oldest
in all hey folks I'm Laci green and this
is dnews birth order that's kind of a
thing in the world of psychology
it's a popular and well supported theory
that claims that the order we're born in
has some effect on our personalities if
you haven't watched traces dnews episode
on the birth of birth order psychology
you definitely should so here's a basic
rundown of what scientists have found in
decades past youngest tends to be more
fun loving uncomplicated outgoing and
their highly agreeable you know easy to
get along with but they also tend to be
little attention seeking self-centered
and rebellious not far from what you
might expect the baby of the family the
middle child has a lot of friends they
tend to be pretty social and great team
players but we also have some
insecurities about not measuring up
possibly because of their overachieving
older sibling which then translates into
peacemaking behavior and the desire to
please everyone and then there is the
firstborns
reliable structured conscientious force
porns tend to be the best in school
they're more likely to be leaders
overachievers and they're often mature
for their age fYI only children have a
lot of overlap with firstborns so my
family has three kids and though it's
just anecdotal these descriptions and
that just to a tee seriously guys it's
kind of weird for years scientists have
been asking why why do these behavioral
patterns keep occurring with this freaky
consistency this week a new study was
put forth that might account for at
least some of it researchers at Duke
have found that some of these
personality traits are related to the
fact that parents behave differently
with each additional child with oldest
parents in the study reported much more
stringent disciplinary measures the
eldest children were allowed less time
for TV and video games and they were
more likely to face punishment than
middle and youngest children for
bringing home a bad grade a second and
third child were let off a little easier
which to be honest kind of annoying I
can't believe some of the crap my little
brother who's the youngest gets away
with that never would have gone down
when I lived at home the researchers
believe that this popular parenting
pattern is an attempt of establishing a
tough-love reputation with oldest in
order to deter bad behavior from the
other kids it's an approach that's
referred to as the reputation
of strategic parenting but what this
reputation model really does is turn
those oldest kids into neurotic freaks
who have high anxiety about doing
everything right to give maybe that's a
little exaggeration but it is true if
the eldest then goes on to have more
success academically and career-wise
what's interesting here is that this is
not necessarily a genetic thing the data
suggests that we are molded this way now
of course there's much more to the story
of how you begin you and how your
siblings became the adorably lovable
little brats that they are but this is
one piece of the pie do you think your
parents went harder on the oldest easier
on the youngest tell me all the dirt
down below and we'll catch you next time
with more dnews updates