Are you said to be the most rebellious child in the family, the one who causes the most problems? Your birth order has nothing to do with it, just like your big brother or sister…
Being the youngest child, you have certainly already been labeled the “rebellious child” or the one who is the “most difficult” in the family. From your point of view, you were not, but your parents attest to the contrary and even justify it by your birth order. Indeed, for some families, the second child is often the most turbulent of the siblings, with a very strong character. And science tends to agree. In a study published in Journal of Labor Economicsdating from 2020, researchers were interested in the birth order of the cadet and the impact that this can have on his character and his actions as he grows up.
The authors of the study go further, even stating that cadets are more likely to exhibit rebellious behavior, which can land them in trouble with the law. To arrive at this observation, they studied hundreds of families from Florida and Denmark. According to their analyses, younger children are more likely to be subject to disciplinary measures at school, compared to their elders, and are 20 to 40% more likely to present delinquency problems later. In Denmark for example, they are the ones who “significantly higher rates of juvenile delinquency, particularly serious violent crime and imprisonment”, compared to their older siblings. This is partly due to parents’ lack of investment and attention to their second child, the researchers observe.
But in the balance, there is also the role of another member of the family which must be taken into consideration and we would not necessarily have thought of it… It is that of the big brother or the big sister. Indeed, for MIT professor Joseph Doyles, second children tend to take their elders as a model, who can introduce them to stupidity and rebellion. Of course, this must be qualified, because each child is different. Especially since in this field, not all experts agree that birth order has an impact on the personality of individuals. But at least, with this study, you know who you can kindly blame in the event of a conflict with your parents…