Study Says First-Borns More Likely To Become Doctors & Engineers

Who do you think is smarter? The firstborn or the later-borns? These all questions are not significant enough. What matters is how children are treated by their parents, how birth order affects a child and sibling relationship. Other factors responsible are parents attention and the child’s socialization.

Firstborns are more likely to choose prestigious programmes at colleges such as medicine and engineering than later-borns who are more likely to take up arts or humanities. Hence first-borns end up earning more than their siblings, as per a study.

According to the research conducted by Max Planck Institute in Munich Germany, first-borns go for stable career choices while the later-borns are inclined towards alternate career choices like journalism, teaching, and humanities. Due to which they end up earning less money. The later borns are 27% less likely than the first-borns to apply for science and engineering programs. The probability of third born applying for medicine and engineering courses is all the more 36% less.

Also Read: Fewer Women Study Science Courses due to Low Confidence

Parental Role:

• Parents play a crucial role in the life of children and their decisions, they tend to invest more on the firstborn as compared to other children.
• Researchers suggest that parents tend to invest more time and sources in the firstborns as compared to the younger ones, which results in differences in abilities and interests within the family.
• They also pay special attention to their education, extracurricular activities, social groups and other daily activities.

Also Read: 7 Reasons Why Students Fail in IITs

Traits of First Born

Firstborns tend to be more responsible, adaptable, assertive, task-oriented, and are born leaders. Nearly all American Presidents were the first born child. Researchers have also linked first born with higher intelligence and better academic achievement. This difference in sibling trait might be due to a strong relationship and better interactions with parents.

Sometimes, the strong bonds between the first born and the parent result in the resentment towards siblings as they don’t enjoy sharing the parental attention.

Traits of Second Born/ Later Borns

The family hierarchy is structured in such a way that the later-borns are mostly competing with their elder sibling which is why they are always attracted to innovation so that they could outshine them and stand out in the family. They often feel isolated from the family as parent’s show less involvement in their lives. Studies suggest that they become successful lawyers and social workers and are very good with their social skills.

Traits of Third Born/Last Borns

Last-borns are usually considered as the baby of the family. They tend to have very high self-esteem because of their strong social relationships in the family.

Despite all the research and data available, it is very difficult to depict the exact behaviour and career preferences of an individual. Career and subject preferences often change while growing up and India is the best example of that. A large proportion of the engineering students in the country take up jobs in designing, marketing and various other fields after completing graduation. Learning and experience change the way individuals perceive their career.