Who is smarter – first-born children or their younger brothers and sisters? Scientists from the University of Edinburgh tried to answer this question; the material was published on the institution’s website.
Experts studied children’s vocabulary, reading speed and associative responses to the proposed pictures. They analyzed data from five thousand children. The studies were carried out every two years – scientists began observing one-year-old children, and ended when the experiment participants turned 14 years old. For the purity of the study, scientists took into account external factors (family income, biography, social status, pedigree).
The results showed that at the age of one, it was the firstborns who had the best results on intelligence tests – they had a higher IQ than their younger sisters and brothers. Further observations showed that the firstborns also coped better with reading, correctly named the objects depicted in the pictures, and were more successful in finding the same letters on the cubes. Also, older children were more diligent, hardworking, and obedient than their brothers and sisters, although both received equal amounts of emotional support from their parents.
At the same time, studies have shown that first-born children were more likely to experience problems with vision and excess weight.
Source: Rosbalt
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
