The Curse of the Second Child Is Real
If you have a son who is the youngest or middle child, you’ll want to look at them like a fucking hawk. Secondborn sons are more likely to be suspended from school, become juvenile delinquents, and go to jail.
According to a huge new report by Joseph Doyle , an economist at MIT, the “curse of the second child” could indeed be true. Doyle and colleagues Sunny Braining, David Figlio, Kshys Karbovnik, and Jeffrey Roth looked at tons of datasets and found that second-born children (especially sons) are 25-40% more likely to get into serious trouble at school or at school. with the law compared to the firstborn in the same family.
For some time, researchers have suggested that firstborns do better, have higher IQs, and may earn higher wages , but this is one of the first major studies to indicate secondborn babies are actually troublemakers. … And it’s not exclusive to families here in the states. Family datasets of thousands of sibling datasets come from both the US and Europe. That doesn’t mean one in two sons will be a handful, but research suggests there is a risk.
But why? What makes second sons different from their older siblings? First, Doyle suggests that parents of first-borns are investing more in their upbringing. When the second child arrives, parents simply lose their vigilance. It also has to do with child role models, Doyle explains to NPR :
“Firstborns have role models – adults. And the second, later kids have role models that are a little irrational two-year-olds, you know, their older siblings. Both parental attachments are different, and sibling influence likely contributes to these differences we see in the job market and what we find in delinquency. It’s just very difficult to separate these two things because they happen at the same time. “
It’s important to note, however, that this study paints a very broad picture. Not every family will experience this phenomenon, and just because you are a second son certainly does not mean that your life will be harder. There are always exceptions to the rules. But for parents raising a second child, it will not hurt to watch closely and be on the lookout. It seems like treating them differently from your firstborn will affect you.