by Jennifer Macon-Steele

Created on: January 10, 2010   Last Updated: January 12, 2010

The order of your birth in the family can have a lot of influence on your personality. As you are developing as a child, it makes a difference whether or not you have siblings and whether those siblings are older or younger than you.

If you are an oldest child, you may find that you are especially responsible and capable. This can come from being like a third parent to younger siblings and being depended upon by your parents for help with other children. You may have a very strong sense of right and wrong, and you may find yourself trying to control people and situations around you.

If you are a middle child, you might find that you are often seeking attention and approval from others. This is because you may have felt lost between older and younger siblings. You might have been rebellious as child because you felt you were not given enough attention. There is a good chance that you are a highly adaptable individual and that you are good at keeping peace between people.

If you are a youngest child, you might find that you are a little bit spoiled and expect people to do things for you instead of having to do them yourself. You might tend toward a creative personality rather than a logical one because you have been given the freedom to express yourself. You may find that you sometimes doubt your abilities and competence because when you were growing up everyone was bigger and stronger than you were. You might also have to control your ability to manipulate others, a quality you perfected as a child.

As an only child, you probably have characteristics of both the youngest and oldest child. You were likely given a lot of attention, so you didn’t need to act out for more. You were also probably given little responsibility and had many things done for you instead of being expected to do them yourself. You may find that you are considerably more responsible than others your age because you interacted with adults most of the time.

Birth order is a fascinating study. Of course each individual is different, and there are differences between male and female children of the same birth order. Often oldest sons, for example, are associated with expectations to be financially and academically successful. Oldest daughters are often said to be nurturing caretakers. Youngest sons may be seen as more of a family clown, while youngest daughters are seen as princesses.

In spite of these differences, there is a science behind birth order that cannot be denied and is fun to explore.

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