Research confirms second born children really can be a handful

No one ever said it was going to get easier.

But if they did, oh how wrong they were. Having one baby is stressful and chaotic enough, but when parents have that much longed-for sibling, it’s often a whole other ball game. Extra nappies, time, food, money and… definitely not any extra sleep. New research shows that the second child really can be a big challenge for parents. Not only that but especially if your second happens to be a boy. We’ve all heard of how a child’s birth order can play a part in their personality, characteristics and achievements but what about second children in particular? MIT economist Joseph Doyle, and his team, studied thousands of families with two or more children, focusing primarily on families where the first one was a boy. The team looked at Denmark and the US to try and gauge which birth order determines “delinquent behaviour” and to what degree. Despite studying families from two very different societies, the findings were somewhat similar. Second born boys were shown to be 20 to 40 percent more likely to get in trouble in school and engage in criminal activity as an adult. E Economist Joseph Doyle explained to NPR,

“The firstborn has role models, who are adults. And the second, later-born children have role models who are slightly irrational 2-year-olds, you know, their older siblings. Both the parental investments are different, and the sibling influences probably contribute to these differences we see in the labour market and what we find in delinquency. It’s just very difficult to separate those two things because they happen at the same time.”

Despite the scary wording and findings, we think there’s probably no cause for alarm. This was a very broad study and there are so many factors that come into play throughout a child’s life which determine how great a life they will lead as adults. Living in a loving and nurturing environment is all anyone needs.