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family and the youngest usurped that position. This often causes middle children to avoid conflict and try to get along with everyone, for fear of rejection. Middleborn children tend to be more loyal to friends, possibly because of reaching out past the family structure for recognition.

Adler theorized that middle children never feel that they have a place in a family. He claims this causes middle children to be more even-tempered and try to resolve differences. Because of the tendency for middleborn children to be diplomatic and have better social skills, it is thought that they have better chances at becoming successful entrepreneurs.

Youngest children tend to be charming and outgoing. They are often viewed as risk takers. Adler states that spoiling the youngest children is a common behavior of parents. He also states that spoiling a youngest child is often what causes babies of the family to be irresponsible and never develop the capacity to be independent.

But what about only children? How does being an only child allegedly affect personality? Only children's personalities differ more than other birth order children. Since their are no other siblings to influence either the child's or the parents' behaviors, only children may exhibit personalities similar to either the oldest or youngest child in the family. This depends on the parenting style. If the only child is spoiled, the child's personality is more likely to resemble a youngest child. If the only child is pushed to be competitive, the resulting personality may be more like the oldest child.

No extensive studies have been done to research birth order effect on personality. One of the reasons is because of the complexity for such a study and no real method for dealing with all of the variables involved. Most published papers involving child birth order as it is related to personality traits contradict one another. No real solid conclusions have yet been drawn.

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