Birth Order, Family Configuration and Verbal Achievement1

Abstract

Two samples of National Merit Scholarship participants tested in 1962 and the entire population of almost 800,000 participants tested in 1965 were examined. Consistent effects in all three groups were observed with respect to both birth order and family size (firstborn and those of smaller families scoring higher). Control of both socioeconomic variables and mother's age (by analysis of variance as well as by analysis of covariance) failed to alter the relationships. Step‐down analyses suggested that the effects were due to a verbal component and that no differences were attributable to nonverbal factors. Detailed sibship configurations based on birth order, family size, sibling spacing, and sibling sex were developed for both sexes. The resulting 82 different sibship configurations were ranked by test score means. A rank‐order correlation between sexes yielded a very high value of .96, and a high correlation was shown to persist within family size.

The Effects of Birth Order and Family Size on Academic Achievement, Divergent Thinking, and Problem Finding Among Gifted Students

“…Thus, it is not surprising that a great deal of research has examined the effect of birth order on different variables including coping strategies (Breik & Zaza, 2019), personality (Barton, 2005), sibling relationships (Ben-Artzey Schieber, 2019), and perfectionism (Sondergeld et al 2007). However, the effect of birth order and family size on intelligence and achievement has received the lion's share of researchers' attention (e.g., Albert, 1980a;Breland, 1972;Cox, 1977;Rodgers et al 2000;Sulloway, 1966;VanTassel-Baska, 1983). Overall, these works suggest that first-borns surpass their siblings in intelligence quotient (IQ) and academic achievement; however, little is known about the effect of birth order on creativity among gifted samples.…”