Research Finds That Second-Born Children Are More Likely To Become Criminals

May 17, 2018 by apost team

You may have just found a new way to fuel your sibling rivalry. New research has claimed that second-born children are more likely than the first-born to become criminals. Whether they have issues with authority at school or delinquency with the law, it seems that second-born children are more likely to be troublesome overall.

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The new study, based on findings from researchers at the University of Florida, Northwestern University, and MIT, has based these conclusions on research where the lives of thousands of sets of brothers were examined and observed. The brothers hailed from the state of Florida as well as Denmark, two countries which differ drastically in terms of cultural behavior, but nevertheless resulted in similar findings.

Although the participants stemmed from different cultures, the study concluded that in both Denmark and Florida, these second-born males were more likely to defy figures of authority than their older siblings. The study says:

 “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.”

The researchers behind this study have postulated that the likelihood of criminality can be due to many factors that stem back to child-rearing. They theorize that second-born children receive less one-on-one attention from parents and are not watched as closely or treasured by parents as much as the first-born.

This lack of attention can cause second-born children to act recklessly in order to refocus the attention of their parents onto themselves.

Researchers also note that when a first child is born, the parents often take as much time off work as possible to focus on the birth of their first child and learning how to take care of that child. When a second-born child is brought into the world, the parents often return to work much faster than with the previous child, leading to not only less attention for the newborn, but also leaving with feelings of being in competition with the jobs and other tasks of the parent.

Authors of the study also speculate that second-born children may misbehave because they are using another child, their older sibling, as their role model and copying their actions which may be immature and reckless due to age. Alternatively, the first-born child grows up looking to the parents when learning how to act, causing them to act more maturely and learn adult behaviors faster than the second-born child in a time where development is crucial.

A previous study determined that the older siblings are likely more intelligent than children who come after them. Parents who were interviewed for this study did tend to admit that they were less passionate when raising second or third-born children than they were with their first child. They admitted a loss of interest in reading stories at bedtime, crafting with these children, or teaching them instruments, consequentially leaving the first child as the most intelligent.

Mothers from this study also admitted that after their first pregnancies, they were not as careful about abstaining from things that can be harmful during pregnancy, such as smoking, caffeine or drugs, which can culminate in unfavorable traits for the children.

However, it isn’t all bad news.

Shankar Vedantam, National Public Radio’s Social Science Correspondent, notes that you shouldn’t be too worried about your second child going on a binge of criminal activity. Although the study has shown a 25-40% increase in possible poor choices in demeanor, only a minority of kids are actually getting themselves into grave danger with the law.

Are you a second-born? Did your older sibling influence your behavior in any negative ways? Don't forget to send this to all your second-born friends to help them stay out of trouble!