First come, first served? Birth order effects on child height in South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Rajan Bishwakarma ◽  
Kira M. Villa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Birth Order ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Order Effect ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Resource Dilution ◽  
Child Height ◽  
Parental Preferences ◽  
Birth Order Effect ◽  
Height For Age

AbstractWe examine the birth order effects on health status for a sample of children aged 1–18 years in South Africa. Using a mother fixed-effects specification, we observe children's height-for-age z-score decreases with birth order. We investigate potential mechanisms underlying the birth order effect including those related to biology, parental preferences, and resource dilution. We also look at whether these effects are due to selection into families of different sizes. We find that the magnitude of the effect is larger in poorer and rural households and in larger families – suggesting that the birth order effect is largely due to resource dilution in economically constrained households.

Probing Birth-Order Effects on Narrow Traits Using Specification-Curve Analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (12) ◽  
pp. 1821-1832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia M. Rohrer ◽  
Boris Egloff ◽  
Stefan C. Schmukle
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Birth Order ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Order Effect ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Curve Analysis ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
Birth Order Effect ◽  
Self Reports

The idea that birth-order position has a lasting impact on personality has been discussed for the past 100 years. Recent large-scale studies have indicated that birth-order effects on the Big Five personality traits are negligible. In the current study, we examined a variety of more narrow personality traits in a large representative sample ( n = 6,500–10,500 in between-family analyses; n = 900–1,200 in within-family analyses). We used specification-curve analysis to assess evidence for birth-order effects across a range of models implementing defensible yet arbitrary analytical decisions (e.g., whether to control for age effects or to exclude participants on the basis of sibling spacing). Although specification-curve analysis clearly confirmed the previously reported birth-order effect on intellect, we found no meaningful effects on life satisfaction, locus of control, interpersonal trust, reciprocity, risk taking, patience, impulsivity, or political orientation. The lack of meaningful birth-order effects on self-reports of personality was not limited to broad traits but also held for more narrowly defined characteristics.

scholarly journals Effects of short birth spacing on birth-order differences in child stunting: Evidence from India

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (8) ◽  
pp. e2017834118
Author(s):  
Sunaina Dhingra ◽  
Prabhu L. Pingali
Keyword(s):  
Birth Order ◽  
Substantial Reduction ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Order Effect ◽  
Birth Spacing ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Indian Children ◽  
Child Stunting ◽  
Child Height

Do firstborn children have a height advantage? Empirical findings have found mostly that, yes, second or higher-order children often lag behind firstborns in height outcomes, especially in developing countries. However, empirical investigations of birth-order effects on child height overlook the potential impact that birth spacing can have. We provide an explanation for the negative birth-order effect on stunting outcomes for young Indian children and show it is driven by short preceding-birth spacing. We find that firstborn children are taller than children of higher birth order: The height-for-age gap for third (or higher)-order children is twice the gap for children second in birth order. However, this pattern is observed when spacing between later-born children and their immediate elder siblings is fewer than 3 y. Interestingly, the firstborn height advantage disappears when later-born children are born at least 3 y after their elder siblings. Thus, our findings indicate that spacing length between children explains differences in height, over birth order. Although India’s family planning policy has resulted in a substantial reduction in total fertility, its achievement in spacing subsequent births has been less impressive. In showing that spacing can alleviate or aggravate birth-order effects on attained height, our study fills an evidence gap: Reducing fertility alone may not be sufficient in overcoming negative birth-order effects. To reduce the detrimental effects of birth order on child stunting, policy responses—and therefore research priorities—require a stronger focus on increasing the time period between births.

scholarly journals Examining the effects of birth order on personality

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (46) ◽  
pp. 14224-14229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia M. Rohrer ◽  
Boris Egloff ◽  
Stefan C. Schmukle
Keyword(s):  
Birth Order ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Order Effect ◽  
The United States ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Birth Order Effect ◽  
Analytical Strategies ◽  
Objectively Measured ◽  
High Statistical Power

This study examined the long-standing question of whether a person’s position among siblings has a lasting impact on that person’s life course. Empirical research on the relation between birth order and intelligence has convincingly documented that performances on psychometric intelligence tests decline slightly from firstborns to later-borns. By contrast, the search for birth-order effects on personality has not yet resulted in conclusive findings. We used data from three large national panels from the United States (n = 5,240), Great Britain (n = 4,489), and Germany (n = 10,457) to resolve this open research question. This database allowed us to identify even very small effects of birth order on personality with sufficiently high statistical power and to investigate whether effects emerge across different samples. We furthermore used two different analytical strategies by comparing siblings with different birth-order positions (i) within the same family (within-family design) and (ii) between different families (between-family design). In our analyses, we confirmed the expected birth-order effect on intelligence. We also observed a significant decline of a 10th of a SD in self-reported intellect with increasing birth-order position, and this effect persisted after controlling for objectively measured intelligence. Most important, however, we consistently found no birth-order effects on extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, or imagination. On the basis of the high statistical power and the consistent results across samples and analytical designs, we must conclude that birth order does not have a lasting effect on broad personality traits outside of the intellectual domain.

A Test for Birth Order Effect

1960 ◽  
Vol 14 (72) ◽  
pp. 384
Author(s):  
C. C. Craig ◽  
D. E. Barton ◽  
F. N. David
Keyword(s):  
Birth Order ◽  
Order Effect ◽  
Birth Order Effect

scholarly journals The Fraternal Birth-Order Effect as Statistical Artefact: Convergent Evidence from Probability Calculus, Simulated Data, and Multiverse Meta- Analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes K Vilsmeier ◽  
Michael Kossmeier ◽  
Martin Voracek ◽  
Ulrich S. Tran
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Birth Order ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Order Effect ◽  
Probability Calculus ◽  
Older Brothers ◽  
Birth Order Effect ◽  
Fraternal Birth Order ◽  
Fraternal Birth Order Effect ◽  
Ratio Variables

For a quarter of a century researchers investigating the origins of sexual orientation have largely ascribed to the fraternal birth order effect (FBOE) as a fact, holding that older brothers increase the odds of homosexual orientation among men through an immunoreactivity process. Here, we triangulate the empirical foundations of the FBOE from three distinct, informative perspectives: First, drawing on basic probability calculus, we deduce mathematically that the body of statistical evidence of the FBOE rests on the false assumptions that effects of family size should be controlled for and that this could be achieved through the use of ratio variables. Second, using a data-simulation approach, we demonstrate that by using ratio variables, researchers are bound to falsely declare corroborating evidence of an excess of older brothers at a rate of up to 100%, and that valid approaches attempting to quantify a potential excess of older brothers among homosexual men must control for the confounding effects of the number of older siblings. And third, we re-examine the empirical evidence of the FBOE by using a novel specification-curve and multiverse approach to meta-analysis. This yielded highly inconsistent and moreover similarly-sized effects across 64 male and 17 female samples (N = 2,778,998), compatible with an excess as well as with a lack of older brothers in both groups, thus, suggesting that almost no variation in the number of older brothers in men is attributable to sexual orientation.

Gender influences the birth order effect in HLA-identical stem cell transplantation

Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 121 (23) ◽  
pp. 4809-4811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miranda P. Dierselhuis ◽  
Eric Spierings ◽  
Ronald Brand ◽  
Matthijs Hendriks ◽  
Angelica Canossi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cell ◽  
Stem Cell Transplantation ◽  
Birth Order ◽  
Cell Transplantation ◽  
Order Effect ◽  
Birth Order Effect ◽  
Gender Influences

scholarly journals New Partner, New Order? Multipartnered Fertility and Birth Order Effects on Educational Achievement

Demography ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 1625-1646
Author(s):  
Mats Lillehagen ◽  
Martin Arstad Isungset
Keyword(s):  
Birth Order ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
New Order ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Socioeconomic Outcomes ◽  
Resource Dilution ◽  
Multipartnered Fertility ◽  
Maternal Resources

Abstract A substantial amount of research shows that younger siblings perform worse than their older sisters and brothers in several socioeconomic outcomes, including educational achievement. Most of these studies examined stable families and excluded half-siblings. However, the increasing prevalence of multipartnered fertility implies that many children grow up in nonnuclear families. We examine whether there is evidence for birth order effects in this context, which offers an opportunity to test and potentially expand the explanatory scope of the two main theories on birth order effects. We use comprehensive Norwegian registry data to study siblings in the 1985–1998 cohorts born to mothers or fathers who parented children with at least two partners. We provide evidence for negative effects of birth order on lower secondary school grades in both cases. Children born to fathers displaying multipartnered fertility tend to have lower grades than older full siblings but perform more similarly or better compared with older half-siblings. For siblings born to mothers with the multipartnered fertility pattern, later-born siblings do worse in school compared with all older siblings. This indicates that negative birth order effects tend to operate either within or across sets of full siblings, depending on the sex of the parent displaying multipartnered fertility. We argue that these findings can be explained by a combination of resource dilution/confluence theory and sex differences in residential arrangements following union dissolutions. We also suggest an alternative interpretation: maternal resources could be more important for generating negative birth order effects.

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