Birth Order and Its Effects on Child Development

Abstract

In recent years, birth order has been recognized as a legitimate theory in human development. There is however, strong opposition to the school of thought. Many factors influence a child’s development on to adulthood, and birth order theory offers a plausible explanation to many of these questions. This paper delves into the origins of birth order, how rankings are defined, as well as “countermeasures” parents can take in remedying many of the negative stigmas associated with the various order classifications.

Throughout recorded history, modern humans have contemplated their existence and attempted to explain their surroundings and their perceptions of one another. One could argue that mythology and religion are the results of these quests for truth. However it wasn’t until Plato first suggested that the brain was a mechanism of mental process, that science and medicine took a minor step toward legitimacy (Heffner, 2003).

Modern psychology gained prominence during the turn of the twentieth century. From Freud to Jung to Erickson, many if not all aspects of the human condition had been explained and theorized to the point of common knowledge in the psychological community. The exception to this rule seemed to be birth order. Leman states that, “Whenever I mention ‘birth order’ during a seminar or a counseling session, I’m often met with the same question: ‘Birth order – is that like astrology’” (Leman, 1992, p. 32). The mystique of birth order theories seems to be the final frontier of psychology, which is surprising considering the importance of sibling relationships. Conger contended, “Our spouses and children arrive comparatively late in our lives; our parents leave us too early. Our brothers and sisters are with us for the whole journey” (Conger as qtd. in Kluger, 2011, p. 63).

Birth order in modern psychology was born with an Austrian medical doctor and psychotherapist by the name of Alfred Adler (1870-1937). Adler became interested in...