The idea comes from the theory that middle children share similar experiences, resulting in similar challenges. Middle child syndrome is an informal term that refers to the way birth order has affected a person’s personality or mental health. Does birth order and academic proficiency influence perfectionistic self-presentation among undergraduate engineering students? A descriptive analysis.Share on Pinterest Bonfanti Diego/Getty Images Birth order and parental and sibling involvement in sex education. Association of birth order with adolescent mental health and suicide attempts: A population-based longitudinal study. Does psychological birth order predict identity perceptions of individuals in emerging adulthood? Ordered delinquency: The “effects” of birth order on delinquency. Check this out for more tips on parenting that you may find helpful. You may find that setting aside some extra time just for them each day or every few days may help reduce their behaviors. It’s possible, through no fault of your own, that they might not feel special as their siblings, or they may feel like their older or younger siblings are getting all the attention. If you notice your middle child acting out more than the others, they may be trying to gain your attention. If you’re a middle child, you may also feel like you’re not your parents’ favorite child because either your older or younger sibling is getting the majority of the attention. NeglectedĪ middle child may feel like their parents don’t pay them enough attention. They may feel overly jealous of their siblings and compete against them whenever possible. Some commonly held beliefs of middle child personality include the following: Feelings of rivalryīecause they’re not the first born or the youngest, middle children may feel like they need to compete for a parent’s attention. The middle child personality may largely be guided by popular perception, rather than actual differences in how their personality shines through. The APA goes on to state that birth order may have small effects on intelligence and personality but that it doesn’t strongly affect psychological outcomes. The same goes for any middle child you may be a parent of or caregiver for. However, if you are a middle child, these findings don’t mean you will have these traits. So, older siblings would be more likely to develop depression than the middle or youngest child. They noted that suicide and mental health risk increased with higher birth order. In another 2019 study, researchers looked at birth order links to the risk of suicide and the development of other mental health conditions, such as depression. However, the difference between percentages was not great. Researchers noted that middle-born children are the least likely of siblings to talk with their parents about sex. In a small 2016 study of 320 undergraduate engineering students, researchers found that middle children reported being less family-oriented compared with their older siblings.īirth order may play a role in how a child communicates with parents, a 2019 study suggests. These studies have found conflicting information over the years.Ī large 2013 study relying on data collected through surveys and interviews from 1994 to 2008 found that middle children were much more likely to have trouble with delinquency compared with their older and younger siblings. The entertainment industry has perpetuated several middle child stereotypes, some of which are untrue and others are exaggerations of middle child syndrome symptoms.Įxperts have studied how birth order may affect things like personality traits, the presence of mental health issues, intelligence, and so on. The theory states that the middle child may develop a rebellious, attention-seeking nature. If these two dynamics exist, it could leave the middle child feeling like an outcast or as if they don’t get enough attention from their parents. The stereotype is that parents will overlook the middle child because the oldest has the most responsibility or is the trailblazer while the youngest gets all the attention as the baby of the family. The belief that middle child syndrome exists at all may have something to do with assumptions and how media portrays them. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines this as a “hypothetical condition” since studies haven’t definitively shown that being a middle child drastically affects your personality or influences whether you’ll develop a mental health condition. You can be the middle of three or more children, and more than one kid can have middle child syndrome if your parents had enough kids to form a basketball team! Middle child syndrome is the belief that middle children - those born between the first and last child of a nuclear family - can develop personality differences based on their birth order.
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