Article: Birth Order Doesn't Matter

[anustart1]

Poor middle kids. We didn't even get a mention. Figures.

[megsw85]

Jul 17, 2015 12:37:26 GMT -5 anustart1 said:

Poor middle kids. We didn't even get a mention. Figures.

Are you really that surprised? Middle children are always forgotten. It's the way of the word.

[musicalsilver]

Jul 17, 2015 13:46:01 GMT -5 @theformerwren said:

Jul 17, 2015 12:58:48 GMT -5 thelorax said:

Can anyone explain how they control for socioeconomic conditions?

This is a total guess, but since it was a study of high school students maybe they chose schools that were fairly economically homogenous?  They may have also done some fancy statistical regression analysis stuff but that is my layperson's guess.  Maybe musicalsilver or some other scientifically inclined person could give a better answer.

I appreciate the confidence - but my statistical analysis of scientific studies starts with t-tests and ends with ANOVAs ... anything more complicated than that, and you're looking for some public health smarty pants :-)

[sympkin]

Jul 17, 2015 12:19:41 GMT -5:

According to Roberts, "another major problem with within-family studies is that the oldest child is always older. People say, 'But my oldest kid is more responsible than my youngest kid.' Yes, and they're also older."

Does this mean we should generally be focusing these studies on adults instead?

Not that I particularly want to read tons on this topic but it seems you might get a better idea of someone's personality traits if you take them out of their sibling structure.