Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Birth order and student performance

A Global Economic Slowdown does not mean every country will experience an economic slowdown.  Global Warming does not mean every year will be warmer than the next.  Scientific studies involving a large sample of people are about looking at averages, finding trends, not predicting what will happen in individual cases.

Economies, climate, people are all complex systems.  All are effecedt by large combinations of factors.  This is why individual cases do not always fall within the trend.

Why do they do these studies that predict trends and not individual cases? To look for potential cause of concern. Then use this as a starting point to find the why behind the trends. The why can be used to then look for ways to alleviate any problems that may occur.

This level of study is not particularly useful for individual families. Once they understand the why, then there might be something a family can work with. But still interesting from an academic point of view.

I have not reviewed this particular study, but I have come across other studies involving birth order.  Some studies have found evidence of prenatal neurological development being effected by birth order in males.  It also appears only male pregnancies affect the development of future male babies.

The effect appears to result in earlier born males having neurological development more in common with more female typical development and later born males having progressively stronger male typical development.

Realize studies in these areas are difficult and the results are prone to a high degree of uncertainty. Sorry, I have not provided any links. I am writing this from memory. Feel free to look into this further.

Interestingly enough, a medicine person in a tribal group told me of a custom whereby certain tribal roles were choosen based on male birth order. The role choices were in line with what the scientific studies found.

I should mention I added in some of my own post analysis based on my knowledge of many areas involving people.