I study psychology at Warsaw University and this year I have to write a kind of an essey about birth order and it's influence on child's personality. I would be very grateful if you sent me some information about this problem or when can I find articles about it.

-- Dobromila (dobi_19@hoga.pl), October 11, 2002

Answers

I believe Alfred Adler pioneered the study of birth-order relationships of children and family. He discussed the ordinal position within the family as an indicator of what he called "style of life." Have a look at Adler, A. (1931) What Life Should Mean to You. New York: Putnam. If you want a slightly more modern or definitely more popular perspective with references to current articles you should read Leman, K (1998) The New Birth Order Book: Why You Are The Way You Are. MI: Baker Book House. Unfortunately, it does not contain much information on "middle" children (such as myself), because there hasn't been very much research conducted on this group - go figure.

Best,

-- Pete Economou (peteecon@yorku.ca), October 11, 2002.

You might also check the interesting work of Walter Toman in the various editions of his book, Toman, W. (1976). Family constellation: Its effects on personality and social behavior. New York: Springer. The book has been printed in many editions since 1976, and is interesting in that it builds a model that includes both birth order and gender of siblings. Family psychologists have written much about sibling relationships, and many take sibling position in Toman's sense into account in doing family history.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), October 13, 2002.

If you're interested in actual data, rather than anecdotes and armchair speculation, and if you're open to the possibility that birth order may NOT have an influence on children's adult personality, see the four essays on birth order by Judith Rich Harris on http://home.att.net/~xchar/tna/birth-order/

-- Charles S. Harris (xchar@att.net), November 14, 2002.