[2] With the help of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Adler specifically developed this theory to understand children's behavior easier.
[2] According to Adler's theory, the life of each first, middle, and last-born sibling is different regarding birth order, and their personality traits can be affected by this.
This term helps researchers understand more about child development and why children behave as they do regarding parenting and sibling relationships.
Through the data they collected, researchers found that parents tended to have a more favorable impression of their first-born's intellect than their younger siblings.
[4] In 1998, researchers conducted a survey to test the theory that birth order had an influence on the personality of an individual and the strength of their bond with their parents.
It was also noted that middle children were less likely to nominate their mother as the person they felt most close to compared to the first-born and last-born.
Kidwell proposed that self esteem is an important scope of one's identity and related to the competence, achievement, and relationships of a child's development.
The study suggests that this is because “there is less time to develop and solidify the uniqueness inherent in being firstborn and lastborn when there is only one year between siblings.
With this compact spacing, all three birth positions become less distinct, clouding the behavioral and perceptual differences between them.”[8] The “lack of uniqueness” phenomenon is defined as achieving status, affection, and recognition among family members because the individual feels special in their eyes.
Kidwell's findings proposed that young men with siblings that were all female showed higher levels of self-esteem, despite the order in which they were born.
Ultimately, there can be psychological effects on middle-born children who don't get the attention that the oldest and youngest child of the family receives.
However, his research is widely criticized as being outdated and not including essential aspects in his work, such as race, age, and gender.