Second-born children are the biggest troublemakers, a study has revealed.
If you've been wondering why your second child is extra mischievous, there’s a scientific explanation for it,
A study from MIT economist, Joseph Doyle claims that second child syndrome is a completely legitimate phenomenon.
According to the report, second-born kids are more likely to be rebellious.
Of the thousands of sibling pairs involved in the study, 25-40% of the second-borns were more likely to get in trouble at school and even with the law.
Second-born children are the biggest troublemakers
One explanation offered by the report is that first-born children tend to get more time and attention from their parents than subsequent kids.
Experts believe that this has a lot to do with how strict parents are with their first born and how they tend to go easy on their second-born.
It could also have something to do with the fact that younger siblings are also significantly influenced by more than just their parents from day one.
“The firstborn has role models, who are adults. And the second, later-born children have role models who are slightly irrational 2-year-olds, you know, their older siblings,” Doyle told NPR.
“Both the parental investments are different, and the sibling influences probably contribute to these differences we see in the labor market and what we find in delinquency. It's just very difficult to separate those two things because they happen at the same time.”
Being the eldest sibling
Don't believe us? Ask any parent about the difference in raising their first child compared to their second child, and they'll certainly back up this report.
Being the eldest sibling isn’t easy.
They often get blamed for everything, have to put up with younger siblings stealing their stuff, and face a 'one rule for one' scenario whereby parents are generally harder on them than on their younger siblings.
