The Effects of Birth Order

The article I chose was "Second Place" by Catherine Crawford. Catherine determines that children's development problems are directly related to their birth order, the oldest being the most favored and adored, and a downward spiral from there. Catherine gives examples from her own upbringing (being one of twelve children!) and in her own family (she has two daughters) of this parenting problem. She attributes her youthful rebellion to receiving less attention because she was born somewhere in the middle-to-bottom of the ladder as opposed to the top of it. And in her own present family, she is seeing the same potential problem in her younger daughter, whom she has deemed the wild one and not compliant. Truly, many challenges of youth are because of their birth order; however, children's developmental problems can be traced to many other issues besides just birth order. For starters, it must be recognized that some children just have problems, either from genetics or personality. A child with ADD would have this learning disability whether they were born first or after other kids. Additionally, the child's friends greatly determine who they will be. So, in the end, it is incomplete to say that birth order is the sole reason for problem children.