Whether you grew up an only child or were surrounded by sibling rivalry, you’ve probably heard countless theories on birth order. In fact, doctors, scientists, and sociologists have studied the topic of birth order on life outcomes extensively. (Your life might even seem like one of those studies right now!)
One of the most popular theories is middle child syndrome. When second born children feel excluded in their families because the first child receives more privileges and the youngest child receives more indulgences, this is known as middle child syndrome.
However, a group of economists working on a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research claims to have the first birth order study of its kind. From Denmark and Florida – two extremely differing cultures – researchers followed thousands of sets of brothers. [1]
The Big Question: Are Second Born Children Actually More Likely to Become Criminals?
At any point in your life, did you even want to put one of your siblings or cousins behind bars for something they did? Just for the duration or a family function, would placing them behind bars bring you relief? Well, be careful what you wish for because, if the study is true, birth order clichés and jokes just got real.
Unsurprisingly, researchers found that second-born children (particularly boys) were more likely to get into trouble with figures of authority.
“Despite large differences in environments across the two areas, we find remarkably consistent results: In families with two or more children, second-born boys are on the order of 20 to 40 percent more likely to be disciplined in school and enter the criminal justice system compared to first-born boys even when we compare siblings.” [1]
Although the research titled “Birth Order and Delinquency: Evidence from Denmark and Florida” has yet to be peer-reviewed or formally published, some of you already have enough sibling life experience to believe it’s true. [3] Published data would just be the cherry on top.
Possible Explanations for the Connection Between Birth Order and Crime
In July 2017, NPR covered the working paper’s findings and gleaned some insights from Shankar Vedantam, their social science correspondent: [2]
“One possible explanation has to do with the effect of parental time and investment. As many other earlier studies have noted, firstborn kids get the undivided attention of their parents, whereas kids born later are often competing for parental time and resources.”
One of the study authors Joseph Doyle, an MIT economist and member of the NBER, added: [2]
“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. Both the parental investments are different, and the sibling influences probably contribute to these differences we see in 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.”
No, This Does Not Mean Second-Born Children Will All Become Criminals
After learning of this study, you may look at the above photo and think to yourself, Is the second-born child hugging or starting to choke his older brother? We think the answer is obvious.
It’s easy to read statistics and jump to generalizations that suit our worldview. However, as in any circumstance, people have the power to change. The study suggests that second-born children or middle child syndrome lead to a life of crime, but birth order has not sealed your fate.
What it does do is provide more data to help researchers determine which factors contribute to criminals and preventative solutions.