Birth Order and Academic Performance

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Literature Review
Discussion
Conclusion and Limitations
Recommendation
References

Abstract

Birth order has played a vital role in families of many nations and races throughout the ages. Every child in a family may have a different position in the household than his or her siblings. When compared to subsequent children, the firstborn tends to be far more unique. Parents’ expectations may also have an impact on their child’s academic performance. Without a doubt, as a child’s first group experience, the role he/she plays in the family may have an impact on his/her personality. Developmental concerns, such as birth order, play a major role in shaping a person’s personality and behavior. This study was conducted to better understand the link between birth order and academic success. This study aimed to see if the academic performance of third-year students at the Kentucky Institute of Management Studies (KIMS) was affected by their birth order.

Introduction

Families of various ethnicities and cultures place a high value on the concept of birth order. Even though they grew up in the same neighborhood and shared the same genetic makeup as their parents, children of the same family act differently. Some intrauterine hypotheses claim that a young mother’s capacity to provide a “rich uterine environment” for her unborn children results in improved health and intelligence. It is important to note that regarding children, it is said that firstborn children are generally labeled as responsible and high achievers, whereas those who were born last or were an only child are always considered to be the most spoilt of them all (Black et al., 2018). Parents’ expectations may also have an impact on a student’s academic performance. Many times elder siblings act as intellectual resources for younger siblings, which in turn encourages the older siblings’ intellectual growth. Overall, first-born children tend to do better academically than second- and third-generation children.

Literature Review

Birth Order and Personality

This theory was first put forth by Alfred Adler, who was one of the first researchers to study birth order. Developmental difficulties, including birth order, are at the root of most character characteristics and behaviors (Arranz-Freijo & Barreto-Zarza, 2021). According to this theory, oldest children tend to become intellectual, conscientious and domineering in social situations. Adler describes those who are born second as having a “pacemaker,” or a leader (Arranz-Freijo & Barreto-Zarza, 2021). Competitiveness, rebelliousness, and a lifelong quest to be the greatest are all traits that may develop in this child. If a child is in the middle, they may have a hard time finding their place in the world. They want to be recognized by their parents, therefore, they cultivate talents in the arts or academics in order to do so. Due to their “middle” position, they may also be the family’s most pragmatists and diplomatic (Arranz-Freijo & Barreto-Zarza, 2021). According to Adler’s view, the youngest kid may be too reliant on others and selfish as a result of being constantly looked after by others in the family.

This child may also have confidence, fun-loving abilities, and the capacity to entertain others. Except for children, no one else has to compete for a parent’s time and attention. The adjustment to school may be tough for them because they are not the entire focus of the instructor. They may have a hard time when they are ordered to. Furthermore, Adler found that compared to their peers of the same age, children are more mature, more at ease around adults, and more capable in the classroom and the arts (Arranz-Freijo & Barreto-Zarza, 2021). Siblings born earlier are said to have more time with their parents than those born later. An explanation for this could be that children who were born earlier tend to do better academically. For one thing, there may be a variation in the genetic make-up of offspring based on their sequence of birth. Siblings born later in life have a higher chance of inheriting a lower-quality genetic makeup since their mothers are older. Third, parents’ experiences with their first-born children may have an unfair influence on their reproductive decisions in the future.

Another argument to explain the influence of birth order on personality development was the “dethronement theory”. Firstborn children got their parents’ undivided attention before their younger siblings were born, but they were soon overtaken by their younger siblings (Keat et al., 2019). Due to the dethronement, the youngster would have a hard time getting their parents back on their side. In turn, this led to the firstborn’s development of qualities such as conscientiousness, conservatism, independence, and competence.

The family-niches model provides an explanation for personality formation. The theory was proposed by Sulloway, who argued that children are more prone to seek parental involvement when there is a perception of unequal investment in the home (Hertler, 2017). Distinct niches let them compete for parental funds. According to Sulloway, it is speculated that first-born children are less agreeable than their siblings in order to keep parental attention from being diverted to their younger siblings (Hertler, 2017). As a result, younger siblings avoid conflict with their older siblings in order to gain parental support. Openness is an important feature in helping later-born children compete for parental investment, and first-born children are less likely to be open than their later-born peers. However, later-born children may acquire their own attitudes, beliefs, and personality traits. As a result, according to Sulloway, children born later are hard-wired to rebel.

Personality and Academic Achievement

Surprisingly, personality traits appear to be involved in academic accomplishment as effectively. Learners’ success in a program was found to be substantially correlated with agreeableness, conscientiousness, and the interplay of both (Tetzner et al., 2020). Students who ranked high on the agreeableness and conscientiousness subdimensions significantly outperformed those who ranked poorly on these subdimensions. Furthermore, Janošević and Petrović (2019) discovered that personality traits, including extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, and conscientiousness, were substantially linked with exam scores. If the preceding hypotheses are correct, the numerical rank of an individual may be used to forecast their personality and academic success.

Theories and on Birth Order Effect on Academic Achievement

The association between academic achievement and birth order has been explained by three theories. Some intrauterine studies have shown that for early-born children, young moms can provide them with a “rich uterine environment,” resulting in better health and intelligence (Cirillo & Cohn, 2020). It is possible that women who have multiple pregnancies use forceps less frequently, resulting in less damage to the baby’s health and intelligence, as some intrauterine theories argue. Birth order has also been suggested to have a substantial impact on cognitive development because of the family’s intellectual environment and the ability to serve as a source of knowledge (Barreto et. al., 2017). As the number of members of a family grows, so does the intellectual climate within the household. As a result, first-born children were born into a more intellectually stimulating environment than their later-born counterparts. However, the age difference between the siblings is a major factor. The younger sibling benefits from more space while the elder sibling suffers; conversely, the older sibling benefits from less space while the younger sibling suffers. In addition, elder siblings are always a source of knowledge for younger siblings, which encourages the older siblings’ intellectual growth.

As a result, the youngest and lone offspring struggle academically compared to the firstborns. Adding a sibling would reduce parental resources, according to the hypothesis of resource dilution (e.g., money, personal time, cultural items) (Öberg, 2017). Assuming the resource dilution hypothesis is correct, parents can concentrate all their attention and resources on their firstborn or only child who has not yet been blessed with a sibling. However, the birth of a second kid necessitated a reorganization of the family’s finances. The theory argues that one’s scholastic success is also influenced by the relative wealth of one’s parents (Öberg, 2017). Consequently, children born later had worse academic achievement than those born earlier (who had access to all of their parents’ resources prior to the advent of the new sibling).

Empirical studies have shown a link between academic success and birth order. Karlsson et al. (2019) discovered an association between birth order and total educational attainment among the middle class in their study. Researchers also discovered that only youngsters performed better academically, corroborating the resource dilution hypothesis they had proposed earlier in the paper. First-born females did better in school than their later-born peers (Barclay, 2018). Lehmann et al. (2018), found no correlation between grade point average and birth order. When other confounding variables were taken into account, Black et al. (2021) found no significant birth order influence on academic achievement.

A number of studies have shown that first-born children tend to outperform their younger siblings in a wide range of academic areas. This should not come as a surprise, given that first-born children often perform better academically than their younger siblings. Because of this, the researcher was curious to find out if, in addition to the fact that each person is unique, the person’s birth order had any bearing on his or her academic achievements in this generation. Each student’s academic standing and chronological position in the class may be different. To find out if a student’s cognitive achievement is dependent on their birth order, if their family’s cognitive environment and ability to serve as an intellectual resource has a major impact on their school achievement, the researcher is interested in finding out.

Hypotheses

An investigation into the influence of siblings and parents on students’ academic performance was the goal of this study. Questions and hypotheses that guide the investigation include: Two research questions have been answered in this study.

Research question; Is the confluence model and resource dilution theory explain the relationship between psychological birth order and scholastic achievement?

H01: Birth order has little bearing on student success levels.
Ha1: Birth order is a strong predictor of student achievement.

Objectives of the Study

Existing birth order studies and literature will be expanded upon in this study. The research will evaluate the influence of sibling and parent-child connections (birth order) on educational achievement and ambition in higher education. Thus, this study aims to investigate whether or not the birth order of an individual, specifically third-year students at Kentucky Institute of Management Studies, has any bearing on their academic performance. Their academic achievements and birth order are clearly distinct from one another. Because of this, researchers came up with the idea of determining if the variables are related. This study has the potential to contribute to the growth of present educational practices by solving the aforementioned research issues. It is based on research that shows a link between a student’s family environment and academic success. When conducting this study, we aimed to resolve the existing debate between pro and anti-birth order advocates and practitioners.

The resource dilution theory and the confluence model could both benefit significantly from the findings of this study. Blake’s resource dilution theory says that the resources available to siblings are considerably diminished with each new addition to the family (Öberg, 2017). According to confluence model each sibling’s cognitive development is influenced by the intellectual depth of the family (Kuba et al., 2018). An additional way to help foster cognitive and social growth in siblings is to allow older siblings to mentor younger ones.

Materials and Methods

A descriptive research design was used in this study. It is a standard approach for describing phenomena in general. Also, it depicts a situation’s current state and examines a certain phenomenon’s trajectory. This method was chosen because of the study’s primary goal: to determine whether or not kids’ academic achievement is related to their birth order. Respondents were asked to fill out a two-part questionnaire designed by the researcher. Concerning academic accomplishment, the first half of the survey questions about respondents’ birth order (e.g. the first born), the second half asks about their average grade point (e.g. excellent), the third half asks about whether they are the middle child, the last child, or the only kid (4.0-4.50). (4.50-5.0). A basic random sampling method was employed to estimate the number of responders. Third-year students from Kentucky Institute of Management Studies totaled 512 of whom 150 were selected for the study using the Tabachnick and Fidell’s formula with a 2% margin of error. Participants were required to have taken The Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA) at grade 11.

Data Collection Procedure

Data was gathered by first writing to the Kentucky Institute of Management Studies director and asking for a list of everyone who had participated in the study. Then, using Tabachnick and Fidell’s formula, the population list was used to calculate the sample size. As soon as he had a list of participants and director’s approval, researcher personally gave questionnaires to responders. A statistical analysis was performed on the results of the questionnaires that were completed. Tabachnick and Fidell’s formula was used because it is simple to understand, simple to implement, and simple to recall, and also because the handbook in which it was introduced became a fundamental text in US applied statistics education. In this case, the study was based on Kentucky, a state in the United States.

Data Analysis

Following are the statistical methods employed: The frequency, mean, percentage, and Chi-square tests were used to define the characteristics of the respondents’ birth order. The researcher utilized the Chi-Square test to see if respondents’ birth order had any bearing on their academic performance. In other words, a chi-square test was employed to examine if reported findings were consistent with predicted outcomes and to eliminate the possibility that observations were random. More crucially, the chi-square test was applicable in this case since the statistics were derived from a representative sample and the parameter in consideration is qualitative.

Results

This study was undertaken to see if there is a statistically significant relationship between birth order and academic achievement among Kentucky Institute of Management Studies. The academic accomplishment of the respondents was shown by birth order. It was discovered that 4 (2.13%) of the respondents were Excellent, 3 (0.65%) were Middle Children, and 1 (0.36) were Only Children. While 30, or 10.01 percent of them were Very Good, 12 or 3.5 percent of them were firstborns, 7 or 3.01 percent were middle children, and 2 or 1.11 percent, were only children. Meanwhile, 112 or 45.4 percent of respondents were Good, with 86 or 31.3 percent being middle children, 61 or 22.15 percent being firstborn, 32 or 11.45 percent being lastborn, and 11 or 4.46 percent being only children. While 50 percent of respondents (or 18.27%) had satisfactory academic attainment, 20 percent (6.88%) were firstborns, 15 percent (6.22%) were middle children, 14 percent (4.85%) were lastborn, and three percent (1.12%) were only children. Among those polled, 6 or 2.46 percent of persons surveyed were Passing, 3 or 1.13 percent were first or middle children, and 1 or 0.35 percent were only children. Among those who took the survey, only one person (or 0.35 percent) was classified as a failure, and that person was a middle child. This suggests that a higher proportion of respondents were top-performing middle school pupils.

Chi-Square and p values for the link between birth order and academic achievement, as well as their interpretations, show 0.05 level of significance. This study has a significant p value of 0.574, which is greater than the 0.05 threshold for significance. There is no correlation between respondents’ birth order and academic performance. Birth order has no effect on the academic success of the respondents. As a result, the null hypothesis was accepted.

Discussion

The results demonstrated no significant differences in personality between participants of different birth orders. It was established from the results of this study that participants’ personalities were unrelated to their own histories of dethronement or the unique places they have carved out for themselves within their families. These findings were in direct conflict with those of the research conducted by (Blanchard, 2018). This could be attributed to changes in data collection methods used by current and previous studies; participants were asked by Rohrer et al. (2017) to select the most successful and conscientious member of their family based on the following questions: rather than measuring siblings’ personality qualities using personality questionnaires, as an example. When a peer-rating method was used, it was shown that birth order had an effect on personality. Between-family comparisons may also have contributed to the unimpressive results. In a birth order study, using a within-family design was preferable to using a between-family design since it reduced variation in parental personality traits, socioeconomic position, sibship size effects, and other variables (Sheppard & Monden, 2020). Confounding variables, including as data collection method, sibling size, socioeconomic position, parenting style, and others, could account for statistically insignificant results.

In addition, this research indicated that the KSA scores of Kentucky Institute of Management Studies students were unaffected by their birth order. The lack of a birth order influence on participants’ KSA findings has been explained in a few different ways. First and foremost, the participants in this study were college students. Every student must achieve the required admission score in order to be accepted into college. As a result, all of the participants in this research are already accomplished individuals. This is shown in their KSA findings’ average score. There were 25.23 out of a possible 40 KSA scores in this study, which is above the average. If the age disparity between parents and children is not considered, it could impact academic success (Cabus & Ariës, 2017). It is possible that inconsequential results are the consequence of the study design’s artifacts. KSA results may have been affected by other variables, including as parenting styles, parental expectations, the family’s intellectual environment, and biological determinants, because of the study’s between-family design. Once age, social class, and religious affiliation were taken into account (Martin & Donnellan, 2021), sibling size was still found to have a greater impact on academic achievement than birth order. More research is needed to better understand the impact of birth order and the number of siblings on academic achievement.

Personality and academic achievement were found to have a strong correlation in this study. However, a correlation between extraversion and KSA results was shown to be substantial. Because the current study was made up primarily of scientific students, one probable explanation for this correlation may be found. Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, and two or more science subjects (i.e. Chemistry, Physics, and Biology) are required for students in the science stream of high school in Kentucky, while students in the art and business streams must take a combination of history, geography, principles of accounts, business or basic economics. Subjects taken by scientific majors demand a deeper comprehension and application than those taken by art or business majors. Because science is all about experimentation, students are encouraged to conduct their own experiments in order to learn. Extraversion may be useful to students in the sciences because of the exploration, investigation, and experimentation that is required to learn the material. However, for students in the science stream, conscientiousness or agreeableness appear to have little effect on their ability to learn. Eysenck’s theory provided another possible explanation for the reported association. Different arousal levels between introverts and extraverts, as proposed by Eysenck’s theory are to blame for the observed disparities in their responses to task performance and the surrounding environment (Netter et al., 2021). In stressful situations, introverts are more likely to perform poorly, but extraverts are more likely to do better if they have a lower level of cortical arousal. So it stands to reason that extraverted kids will do better in tests and other stressful situations.

There are numerous merits in this study despite the aforementioned restrictions, which allowed the findings to be accurate and informative. For starters, the sample size in this study was balanced across ordinal levels, therefore the results were not influenced by birth position. For one thing, there is a lot of debate about whether an only child is reared as the first or last born, and some studies either omitted or grouped them into one of these two categories. Since only one child was included as a distinct birth order group, this was a beneficial outcome of the inquiry. To round things up, our research made use of a tool that has been shown to be highly reliable and valid. Finally, this study was one of only a few that explored birth order effects in Kentucky Contexts.

The study’s power and generalizability could be improved by enlarging the sample and collecting data from many universities in the future. The size of the family, the age gap between siblings, and the siblings’ socioeconomic level should all be considered when conducting a birth order study. To ensure that confounding variables are properly controlled, researchers should use the within-family design to explore birth order effects. Finally, among Kentucky Institute of Management Studies students in Kentucky, this study found no evidence of birth order impacts on personality or academic achievement. However, a correlation between extraversion and academic success was established.

Conclusion and Limitations

The researcher came to conclusion that respondents with good grades were more likely to be first or middle children, according to their grade point averages. Likewise, they did not find any correlation that exists between respondent’s IQ and their birth order, which means IQ has little to no bearing on their academic performance. More importantly, strong sibling connections and exchanges may enhance cognitive maturation, offer psychological comfort, and protect siblings from negative life occurrences such as marital strife or bad peer interactions.

However, there is often not harmony and support in sibling relationships. It has been well-documented from ancient times, most prominently the Biblical tale of Cain and Abel. Abuse between siblings occurs often, with incidents occurring almost every week. This kind of bullying is known as sibling bullying. Perhaps because it is so frequent, physical and verbal violence between siblings has largely gone unrecognized for its detrimental consequences on one’s personality and mental health. Being tormented by one’s siblings increases one’s risk of developing mental health issues like sadness and anxiety.

In some studies, participants expressed regrets of being born because their siblings torture them so severely (Lewin, 2018). These experiences can have negative impact on the performance of children in school. This unquestionably reinforces the notion that the nature of the sibling connection, as opposed to birth order, has a considerable impact on academic achievement. Reduced harassment between siblings is expected to have a large impact on demographic academic performance. Thus, in scholarly and mental health contexts, sibling connections should be treated equally to parent-child ties.

The study’s design may have had an effect on its findings. Primarily, descriptive research designs make it difficult to validate issues using statistical tools or procedures. Additionally, responders might be influenced by an observer’s presence and may participate in deception. This phenomenon is referred to as the observer effect. According to Svensberg et al. (2021), the observer effect is the understanding that investigators are engaging with the system, often through measuring devices, and altering the events being researched. Respondents are often less inclined to provide truthful replies if they believe the query will judge personal concerns.

The study settings is another limitation of the research. Initially, most of the participants were from Kentucky Institute of Management Studies. The conclusions of this study may, therefore, not be applicable to all young students from Kentucky. A second issue is that birth order effects were not controlled for in this study, which may have resulted in the absence of birth order effects. Finally, the results of this study may be the result of the design of the investigation, which is a cross-family study.

Recommendation

The researcher’s recommendations are listed below:

Researchers advocate an innovative academic method or technique in teaching and/or holding more academic events in order to boost academic accomplishment or to bring out the potential of students intellectually, to review and apply information and abilities and to make them more competitive.
Research on additional variables, such as birth order and academic achievement, could be done in the future to see whether there is a correlation between the two.
A broader range of universities with a variety of year levels may be included in future studies, which would increase the sample size.
The advantages of family resources on educational attainment favored first-born children and might be transferred to late-born children with some degradation.

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