Birth Order and Aggressive Behavior

Essay by snstollUniversity, Bachelor's September 2004

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BIRTH ORDER AND AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to determine if birth order correlates to a demonstration of aggressiveness in kindergarten aged children. It is hypothesized that middle born children will demonstrate the most aggressive tendencies, last born children would experience less than the first born, and only children would have the least when compared to all other birth orders. This quasi-experimental methodology will involve a field study of children from the ten kindergarten classes at the Seoul American Elementary School (SAES). Teachers will be asked to complete the Child Behavior Scale (CBS) inventory on each child, used to measure six behavior categories related to aggression. Each CBS inventory will include birth data for the student whose behavior was observed. The findings are expected to show a correlation between birth order and a tendency toward aggression.

INTRODUCTION

Everyone who is born into a family arrives relative to other children who have already been born or will be at some point in the future or perhaps as an only child.

Birth order does not permanently mark each child such as race or gender, but it can impact on the way a person responds to the environment. There have been a number of studies done on the relationship of birth order to personality, intelligence, anxiety and other characteristics with the belief that each child born into a family is treated differently based on their birth order, family interaction and subsequent challenges.

Some birth order theorists believe that a child's position in the family greatly influences their personality characteristics which directly affect their behavior both inside and outside of the home (Morales). Not every theorist has the same view and there are those that believe a psychological birth order has more impact than the physical birth order on the...