Birth Order Characteristics

Ashleigh Emery
Miss Roth
English 1-2
21 March 2017
The Characteristics of Birth Order From First to Last
Birth Order can affect many characteristics of an individual such as their personality, feelings, and thoughts. De. Leman stated in his Birth Order Book that “birth order is designed to give you clues about what an individual is like and what their thoughts and feelings are (75).” Birth Order can be affected by factors such as the number of siblings an individual has and the age gap separating them. Although an individual can not change his or her birth order, he or she can change a mindset which influences actions and personality. Birth Order affects personalities depending on if an individual is a firstborn, middle child, or the youngest.
Generally, firstborns “conform to parental values (Slloway 196).” Usually, occurring because of having all parental attention at one point, then causing the following in parents’ footsteps. Firstborn children diligently obey parents, then resulting in submitting to other authorities, such as teachers. An individual born first typically “strives to please others (Leman 83).” Generally wanting to please everyone and work hard to do so. Most of the time, however, this leads to stress and pressure as the individual endeavors succeed in every situation. This pressure and stress that firstborns feel is most likely the outcome of these individuals being perfectionists. Being a perfectionist, if it is felt that they didn’t follow through with a task perfectly, they will feel guilty (Leman 115). Perfection may be ok in some ways, but in most cases, perfection simply leads to stress and a feeling that an action is incomplete or not done well if it is not perfect. In these individuals, perfectionism typically occurs because of the strive to be like his or her parents. However, it is very hard to become like an adult as a child, causing the pressure of perfection. Another aspect of perfectionism for
“One mother in San Diego says that her last born, seven year old daughter ‘loves to be in the spotlight and will wrestle it from others if need be’ (Voo N.P.).” Lastborn children typically do anything they can to receive applause and attention. The simple phrase “Go get ‘em, we’re counting on you’ is enough to keep last borns going for hours, if not weeks (Leman 172).” Last borns don't only strive for applause but also encouragement. The youngest of a family is also easily encouraged which helps them keep going even when they feel discouraged. Last born children strive or find a way to attract attention through exploration, therefore generally scoring high on imagination (Borher et.al. N. P. ). These individuals are very creative and use this skill to come up with ways to receive attention. This most likely comes because last borns were used to receiving attention by being the cute and little one as a baby or young child. Parents of the last child are generally less cautious cautious, resulting in being less rule oriented (Ratledge N P.). Unlike the firstborn, parents of the last born have already experienced children and are less likely to panic or worry in situations the firstborn has already gone through. Typically resulting in these individuals becoming not as much of a rule follower as their older sibling because their parents aren’t constantly worrying about them. Youngest children tend to get away with more than