Birth Order

Frank Sulloway

For the last twenty years, Frank Sulloway has researched the influence of birth order on personality and behaviour. He’s a visiting scholar at the University of California, has a History of Science PhD, and is the author of Born to Rebel, which uses historical data to provide evidence for his theory. He acknowledges that other factors - like gender - can influence personality, but says a child’s birth order is the strongest indicator of the role the child takes in their family.

Toni Falbo

Toni Falbo is a Professor of Educational Psychology and Sociology at the University of Texas.  She is critical of birth order theories, and says birth order plays a very small role in shaping people’s personalities. Toni is an only child, as is her daughter, and Toni has researched the impacts of China’s one child policy. Toni feels parents should concentrate on their unique personalities of their children, rather than seek advice from birth order books.

Julie Fitness

Julie Fitness is a Professor of Psychology at Macquarie University and has researched “black sheep” and “favourites” in families. During her research she found that, overwhelmingly, middle children did not report being the favourite while eldest and youngest children did. Julie says that sometimes what children think is parental favouritism is in fact just parents treating their children differently because they are different.

The Elyaseh Family

Max and his wife Mirvat immigrated from Lebanon more than twenty years ago and had all their five children here in Australia. Max says his eldest son Mohammed is “the man of the house” despite the fact that Mohammed is 10 years old and the fourth of five children. Nebal, the eldest, is known as “mini-mum” and her sisters Nerveen and Nermeen fight about which of them is the middle child. Everyone thinks the youngest child Ibrahim is very cute … except for Nermeen who thinks he is spoilt. See family tree here.

The Swarbrick Family

There are five kids in the Swarbrick family with a 20 year gap between the oldest and youngest. Middle children Michael and Jennifer believe being a middle child makes you a more resilient person because you grow up dealing with the fact that you aren’t in the spotlight. Jennifer felt overlooked by her parents and has decided never to have three children because she doesn’t want her children to have the same experience. See family tree here.

The Orr Family

The Orrs have a lot of branches on their family tree with six kids from William Senior’s two different marriages. Melissa, who is also adopted, went from being the youngest in her father’s first family to being the eldest in his second family. William Junior, the oldest of the second family’s kids, says that he always felt like the oldest even though Melissa came to live with them from when he was very small. All the girls from the second marriage looked up to Nicqui as their big sister but Nicqui felt like she was an only child at times. Birth order experts say that blended families cause a real problem for them because they are thrown out of any research sample. Confused? See their family tree here.