I am a firm believer that it certainly helps establish who you are, or will become.

yeah, im a ISFJ (personality type) and a oldest child. An ISFJ from what i see is already like a mix between oldest and middle. Im a negiotater and a resposible 17 year old taking care of my little brother.

Yup, I'm the youngest, a brat, drama queen, and I always have to get my way!

I was watching a program on 'Middle Child Syndrome' on channel 5, and they certainly seemed to think so. They thought: First Born- Tends to be bossier, more dominant. Likely to have a high powered job, be assertive and confident. Logical. Last Born- Spoilt and pampered as baby of family. Confident also, but more likely to work with people or be creative. Middle born- lost in the pile. Often feels rejected and left out. More likely to feel depressed and ignored. Only child- A bit of everything, but often feels lonely and seperate. From my own experience however, that is a load of bull. We make who we are, our surroundings, upbrings, reactions to situations and genes. The idea birth order has much effect is a very vague and unproven one. We are all different, after all

Many psychologists and therapists believe so, especially Murray Bowan, who created a non Freudian based psychotherapy school called "Bowanism." is is a form of what is called "family systems therapy." Bowen felt that problems within the family unit stem from a multigenerational transmission process whereby levels of differentiation among family members become progressively lower from one generation to the next. The goal of "Extended Family Systems Therapy" is to increase individual family members level of differentiation. Bowen summarized his theory using eight interlocking concepts: Differentiation of Self (the most important concept) Nuclear Family Emotional System Triangulation Family Projection Process Multigenerational Transmission Process Emotional Cutoff Sibling Position ********** Societal Emotional Process

There are no hard and fast rules, only tendencies and vague probabilities. You can not, for instance, look at a first-born and say he must be this of that. However, if you are dealing with a first-born, there are somethings you might investigate before others. When new parents have their first child, they burden it with all of their hopes and dreams. And they often overlook its transgressions. First-borns tend to be driven and perfectionistic. Often, when the second child comes along, parents are more experienced and they don't want to make the same mistakes that they made with the first born. In a sense, the second-born is paying for the mistakes of the first, and the second-born tends to become a rebel. Further down the line, later children might tend to feel ignored and they become entertainers to get attention. Even further down the line, in large families, a child might become the so-called "lost child", the one who feels rejected because there is not enough attention to go around. Again, no hard and fast rules, just hints on what to look at.

There is a lot of research relating to this, that indicates certain tendencies of behaviour resulting from birth order. eg first born (because he/she is the only child for a while, grows up to be more dominant, assertive and self-sufficient) 2nd child strives for attention. Will tend to achieve in areas where the first child does not And so on. The book First Born, Second Born by Barbara Sullivan (1983) took a novel approach by looking at the family struggles among the Jewish Patriarchs in the book of Genesis, applying the rules of birth to the major players. Not surprisingly, the birth order personalities which pshycologists had come up with closely matched what went on between brothers such as Jacob and Esau.

Therapists who believe in a certain type of therapy based on birth order believe so in particular. Other people have studied it also and found many commonalities with oldest, middle and youngest children. In the end, people can change alot as they desire, or they can continue patterns formed as they grew up in the family as a child.

Yes, it can. (Not DOES) There are definitely common personality traits between first borns, second borns etc, and this can impact on relationships with spouses/partners (eg if a first born marries a second born). But, if you do some reading up on the subject or (if things are serious) get some counselling, you can work through these things, as with any difficulties.

You know it's hard to say because the world is so full of different situations. You might be the oldest child, but then your parents get married into a family of another person who has an older step sibbling then you. Who really knows though.

The only thing that makes a difference in the birth order IS the parental education that might vary. Patterns can be observed with parents having a first, second, third, etc. child. The first child will OFTEN bear more responsibilities vs the younger ones, helping with tasks etc. while last ones will often be brought up with a lot of care from others and not having to take responsibility for someone else nor themselves (contrarily to first childs). Last children will often need support from others to get around. They will often ask for more stuff, want their way, etc. First child will often be more responsible, take care of things other than himself too... (but that's if he/she was actively implicated in the process of taking care of the younger ones. if he/she was neglected vs the younger one because parents were more busy with the more needy younger baby, well then a whole other story will unravel)... So really. It's more the patterns that tend to be installed within the families than the birth order itself that will cause an effect. We see many 1st, 2nd, 3rd... children with the same kind of personality because of that. The kind of tasks, responsibilities, the impact a newborn has in the parental education and the attention one gets WILL impact the personality. Just like any other event that might do the same. (divorce, death, illness, adoption, foster parents, poverty, ...)

I strongly believe so, and the reason being is that a lot of times parents will "expect" certain things from their oldest (being responsible, don't let your brother/sister get into "trouble," etc) that they don't from the younger kids.

IDK for sure but they say it does.