Introduction Birth order has for many years been a well-researched topic studied for several reasons by psychologists interested in families, children, and development (Wichman, Rodgers, & MacCallum, 2006). Something that I have considered is how your birth order affects your intelligence. I believe that older mothers, smaller families sizes, and more attention from parents to the oldest children in families are the reason why the eldest child is most likely to have the highest IQ compared to their siblings.
Older mothers
I believe the first of three reasons as to why children who were born first will likely have a higher IQ than younger siblings is that their mother had children when they were older as compared to younger mothers. The age …show more content…
As mentioned before, older parents tend to have smaller families (Zajonc & Sulloway, 2007). Although many educated parents choose to keep their family size small, Conley and Glauber (2006) mention that many parents want to have mixed sex families, and a lot of the time chose to have more children if the first two are either both boys or girls. Typically, parents with higher cognitive abilities chose to have smaller families while many parents with lower intellectual levels tend to have more children. Another interesting note is that being a twin does not affect your IQ negatively, but it does decrease your chances of going to a private school (Conley & Glauber, 2006). Some may view this as a detrimental loss to education, while other parents simply chose to not put their children in a private …show more content…
As Price (2007) collected, “first born children receive 20-30 more minutes of quality time each day with his or her parent than a second born child of the same age from a similar family.” Time with parents is perhaps one of the most important keys to a child’s development, regardless of their birth order. As well, “first-born child receives about 20 minutes of quality father-time and 25 more minutes of quality mother-time each day than the second-born child does at the same age. This leads to an aggregate difference of about 3,000 hours across the ages of 4-13.” Even if parents spend the same amount of time with each child at a point in time, but as the children grow older, they spend less time with their children. Thus, parents spend more time with the eldest by the time the second and later children reach the same age. More parents simply just have more time to invest in the first born children (Emerson & Souza,
Older mothers
I believe the first of three reasons as to why children who were born first will likely have a higher IQ than younger siblings is that their mother had children when they were older as compared to younger mothers. The age …show more content…
As mentioned before, older parents tend to have smaller families (Zajonc & Sulloway, 2007). Although many educated parents choose to keep their family size small, Conley and Glauber (2006) mention that many parents want to have mixed sex families, and a lot of the time chose to have more children if the first two are either both boys or girls. Typically, parents with higher cognitive abilities chose to have smaller families while many parents with lower intellectual levels tend to have more children. Another interesting note is that being a twin does not affect your IQ negatively, but it does decrease your chances of going to a private school (Conley & Glauber, 2006). Some may view this as a detrimental loss to education, while other parents simply chose to not put their children in a private …show more content…
As Price (2007) collected, “first born children receive 20-30 more minutes of quality time each day with his or her parent than a second born child of the same age from a similar family.” Time with parents is perhaps one of the most important keys to a child’s development, regardless of their birth order. As well, “first-born child receives about 20 minutes of quality father-time and 25 more minutes of quality mother-time each day than the second-born child does at the same age. This leads to an aggregate difference of about 3,000 hours across the ages of 4-13.” Even if parents spend the same amount of time with each child at a point in time, but as the children grow older, they spend less time with their children. Thus, parents spend more time with the eldest by the time the second and later children reach the same age. More parents simply just have more time to invest in the first born children (Emerson & Souza,