The four articles that write about birth order always bring up the correlation between

first born children, the middle child/children, and the youngest child. In many cases, first born

children are more outgoing, and were challenged and cared for by their parents more than the

second child. I agree with these articles on many of the theories and questions that they pose.

In the article titled ‘Birth Order and Personality,’ they state that the first born child

become leaders in society because of the attention they receive while an only child. The second

born child must then fight to regain some of the attention from the parents, and have to grow

up without the attention that a first child may receive. They also say that a second born child

begins to compete in an area where the older sibling is already proficient or excelling. I can

testify that this point is accurate, because I began taking violin lessons by begging my mother to

because Gwen had just started. I eventually began to grow my music interests to many

different areas, and eventually I became better than Gwen, but without her influence, I

wouldn’t have accessed this side of myself. They also mention the fact that the middle child

may pursue a career in the arts or have an interest in the arts, which describes me incredibly

accurately. In the article, however, they say that the youngest child is spoiled by the older

children, along with the parents. My parents definitely spoil my youngest sister, but I have

never and will never spoil her.

In the article ‘Can Birth Order Determine Your Career?’ they state that first born

children are more likely to go into an ‘intellectual’ job, like medicine or law. Gwen is planning

on going into the field of medicine during college. They state that middle children have

excellent negotiating and people skills. I beg to differ on that point, just because of the fact that

I don’t like to interact with people on a professional level. One other interesting perspective is
the research behind only children. The article states that they are more confident, articulate

and imaginative than other children, which is something I wouldn’t expect from a child that

didn’t grow up with a brother or a sister.

In conclusion, I believe in many different aspects of birth order. I definitely understand

how the first born may be much more successful than the middle child, or that the youngest

child may be lazier than the children ahead of them. What I don’t agree with is the broad

generalizations of personalities that they made of each category. I know that these ‘broad

generalizations’ are made from immense amounts of research, but to have your entire

personality written down based on your birth order isn’t believable to me.