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This paper presents data designed to test whether first and only children are superior to later-born children in reading ability and achievement motivation. Subjects were 2,523 tenth- and twelfth-grade public high school students. The results showed that first and only children were indeed superior to later born on a test of reading ability. Responses to questionnaire items indicated that first and only children also had higher educational aspirations than later-born children. This finding was only true of families of higher socioeconomic background. More- over, the results were due almost entirely to a difference between first and only children and third-born children. Second born did not differ from the first and only groups and, in fact, performed better on the reading test than third born. The results were interpreted in terms of parental attitudes toward rearing early-versus later-born children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographers have extensively studied differential fertility and established that average family size is consistently larger in rural than in urban areas. Social psychologists, on the other hand, have shown that specific birth orders tend to be systematically related to certain kinds of behaviors. Finally, rural sociologists have demonstrated that rurality is a significant social variable systematically related to various behavior patterns. The thesis of this paper is that these three independent foci have a direct bearing upon each other in ways which demographers, social psychologists, and rural sociologists have generally failed to consider. It is the suggestion of the author that the rural-urban fertility differentials may be more important than is often assumed if one focuses on the necessary differences in birth orders associated with small and large families.

ABSTRACT This paper is a preliminary investigation into the role of anxiety in insurance purchasing decisions. Because the psychological literature with respect to birth order provides indications of differential anxiety levels and affiliative behavior under stressful conditions, the study examines the role of birth order in relating anxiety to insurance purchasing decisions. It was hypothesized that first and only children would purchase more life insurance, total and individual, than would later bores. Samples, including demographic as well as insurance purchasing and birth order data, were drawn from two student populations at opposite ends of the country. The data were subjected to multiple regression analysis and support for the hypotheses was indicated by only one of the samples. After analysis of the findings, suggestions for further research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response by Alan E. Bayer to a letter to the editor about his article "Birth Order and College Attendance" in the November 1966 issue is presented.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Birth Order and College Attendance," by Alan E. Bayer in the November 1966 issue.

Previous research has established that family size preferences vary directly with the size of the family of orientation. This relationship was found to be stronger among firstborn women and among women who felt "close" to their families. Data from 635 high school sophomores are used to test two of these propositions. Partial support is found for the relationship between family size preferences and size of family of orientation. However, it is suggested that this relationship holds most strongly under conditions of little intergenerational change in lifestyle, a limitation not noted in earlier work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents views on the role of a purchaser's anxiety on insurance purchasing behavior. It cannot be taken for granted that insurance is utilized as a means of reducing anxiety in every purchasing situation by every individual. Anxiety reduction would be an especially doubtful motive when the policy is purchased primarily for its savings features or for estate planning purposes. Since uncertainty reduction has been generally accepted in some circumstances, there is little need for introducing an additional anxiety reduction concept. First borns do not have higher anxiety levels with respect to all stimuli. The only empirically demonstrated birth order difference found in the literature is that first borns are more anxious at the prospect of physical pain. Applying this finding to the insurance purchasing situation is a tenuous assumption at best. One could argue that the insurance agent neither increases nor decreases anxiety. In any case, it simply cannot be predicted that first borns would be likely to purchase more individual life insurance as a result of being in contact with an agent. The basic problem with the ex post facto research is the lack of control over the independent variable.

This study was carried out on career women in high status positions in Israel. Factors of family structure related to women's occupational mobility chances were investigated. Women in high status positions were expected to originate predominantly from sibling groups composed solely of daughters, and to be, disproportionally, the youngest daughters in their family. Youngest daughters were, indeed, found to be significantly overrepresented among the study population, albeit only in large sibling groups of five or more children. Eldest daughters, though, were found to be overrepresented in small sibling groups, yet at an unsignificant level. Sibling groups' sex composition was found to be unrelated to women's career status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between birth order and friendship associations is analyzed in a study based on a total sample of women college students in the Middle East. The main finding of the study is that last-born girls tend to visit with friends more frequently than first and in-between children. However, the same pattern by birth order does not always hold when intensity of interaction with friends is considered. Theoretically, the relatively high participation with friends on the part of last-borns as compared to first-borns may reflect the beginning of change in the functions of the family. Moreover, the apparent high friendship interaction of all the different groups studied emphasizes group solidarity based on affectivity as its major base of strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theory is presented to account for the tendency of family size to be the same in successive generations of the same family. It is hypothesized that size preferences for the family of procreation vary directly with the size of the family of orientation, that the association is greater among women who felt "close" to their families of orientation, and among firstborn women. Interview and questionnaire data from 389 college women support these hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships between birth order and dimensions of kinship affiliation are examined in a study based on a total sample of women college students in the Middle East. The main finding of the study is that first-borns tend to spend more time with relatives than last-born girls. However, the same pattern by birth order does not always bold in the case of parental associations and kinship participation—the other two dimensions of kinship affiliation. Theoretically, the continued importance of kinship affiliation for all the different groups studied here implies the solidarity of the family in the Middle Eastern society. Moreover, the relatively high involvement with relatives on the part of first-born, girls, as compared to last-borns, moderately supports the proposition that the former group acts as a "conservator of the traditional culture." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This questionnaire study of a large conventional sample represents an attempt to test hypotheses about birth order which were generated from an impressionistic survey of eminent men. The main hypothesis was that the first of sex-due to an interaction with parents who are more requiring of compliance with moral injunctions and adult expectations-tend (in comparison to the later of sex) to internalize more strongly these injunctions and expectations with a resultant stronger sense of serious moral responsibility. Analysis of the results by non-parametric statistical methods gave support to the hypothesis: In each of the three major subgroups (young males and females and older males), the first of sex gave earlier responsibility scores than did the later of sex. Other results tangential to the main hypothesis are also reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This follow-up study of a large national sample of high school seniors examines the magnitude and direction of birth order effects on educational attainment. Only children are found to be the most likely to attend college, while children of intermediate ordinal positions are least likely to further their education. Contrary to previous research findings, first-born emerge as no more likely to attend college than are last-born from the same family size and socioeconomic strata. The implications of these findings with respect to the generally posed explanatory hypotheses are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates the relationship between birth order and anxiety or physiological stress response using direct and objective measures. Firstborn' heart rates elevated during resting and stress conditions; Firstborns' heart rates elevated under the stress conditions when resting heart rates were matched for eight pairs of first- and later-borns.

The creativity of 68 middle- and lower-class Caucasian children attending a nursery school, kindergarten, or day-care center was measured by an object-identification originality test. The Mann-Whitney U test was employed to analyze differences, with a confidence level of .05. Firstborn and only children were significantly more creative than later-born children. Middle-class children were significantly more creative than lower-class children. It was concluded that enrollment in a preschool program alone is not sufficient to increase the creativity of lower-class children to the level of their middle-class peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sibling constellation factors were related to measures of creativity (Minnesota Tests of Creative Thinking), IQ, reading, arithmetic, and language achievement in a sixth-grade population using analysis of variance. In the first portion of the study, family size was found to be unrelated to ability and achievement (N = 140). The main portion of the study investigated birth order sex, sex of sibling, and age difference in the 2-child family (N = 80), and found that verbal creative abilities, reading, and arithmetic achievement were enhanced for Ss with siblings of like sex close in age. In the final portion of the study, birth order was found to be unrelated to ability and achievement in 3- and 4-child families (N = 144), and sibling sex was found to be important in the 3-child family where Ss with 2. brothers had poorer IQ and reading scores than Ss with at least one sister (N = 96). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the relationship between birth order and managerial achievement. Correlation of birth order with conformity; Comparison between firstborns and lateborns' response to normative influences.

This study is concerned with the brothers and sisters of a sample of women, some of whom were considered creative by their college faculty. It inquires into family relationships associated with the development of the creative personality. The problem of the present study is then to investigate the conditions in the family which would produce individuals who are "nonadapted" but can by creative accomplishment relate to society on their own terms. The following conceptual structure has guided the selection of variables and design of materials, the motivation to engage in creative activity, for a child, reflects the combination of dissatisfaction, or a nonadapted position, with regard to his relationships in the family, symbolic facility and an approach to the world which is focused on the potential and intuitive rather than the practical. The effect of sibling position on motivation for creative achievement may be analyzed in terms of its implications for the above components. For example, the first born child is frequently overrepresented in samples of high achievers or creative persons. Several psychological factors which affect the oldest child appear to increase their predilection for eminence. Some of the same factors which affect the first-born child differently from the later-born also affect the male child differently from the female the boy more than the girl renounces dependency and affective relationships and is valued for his intellectual and physical skills. But like the oldest child, the boy may renounce his receptive side too completely, and become too narrow in outlook.

The present study was designed to explore the relationship between ordinal position and personality adjustment. The California Test of Personality was administered to 272 fifth-graders, 242 eighth-graders, and 341 eleventh-graders. Data from the three grades were analyzed separately. Previous studies of the relationship between ordinal position and the mental health status of children have involved such important methodological problems or have been so limited in coverage of age groups that few generalizations have been established. The data for this study were obtained in the context of a large personality assessment project. Subjects were 855 white pupils enrolled in 12 schools in three Chicago suburbs, one a working-class community, one a heterogeneous but predominantly lower-middle-class community, and the third an upper-middle-class community with a preponderance of persons in professional and managerial occupations. The analyses of variance indicated that the first-borns earned higher adjustment scores than the later-borns in grades five and eight, while a similar trend at the eleventh-grade level failed to reach statistical significance.

The article focuses on the direction and generality of the relationship between ordinal position and affiliative tendencies. Ordinal position has been categorized into two groups, one that those who are only children, combined with first-borns who have siblings, and second is, later-born children. It is predicted that first-borns are higher in need for affiliation than are later-borns. First-borns may have stronger affiliative tendencies than later-borns because they associate their mothers more strongly with anxiety reduction in childhood. On the assumption that siblings must compete for a limited quantity of parental affection, a researcher predicted that second-born children would have higher need for affiliation than first-borns with siblings, and that the latter would be higher in affiliations than would only children. If the sibling rivalry theory is valid, the first-born with siblings should be particularly aroused by the individual testing situation. Such a situation should reintegrate the negative affect associated with loss of social stimulation and support.

Recent investigations have demonstrated that original sibling position is an important determinant of affiliative behavior. These studies show that only children and first-born children have a greater tendency to conform under group pressure and to affiliate with others under conditions of stress than is the case for later-born children. These findings lead to the hypothesis of a greater "need" for affiliation in the early-borns, but the exact nature of this need is not clear from the relationships found. It is conceivable, for example, that the first-born child affiliates more than later-borns because he has developed a high fear of rejection as a result of the initial displacement by younger siblings, or that he affiliates more because he has relatively more positive experience with affiliation, having arrived first on the scene, etc. Any number of such alternative and equally plausible hypotheses may be offered to account for the effects of different birth orders on affiliative behavior.