A new study from researchers at MIT found that the curse of the second born child is real. Especially if the 2nd born is a boy.
A second born boy is waaaaay more likely to get in big trouble at school, get suspended, and spend time in jail.
Joseph Doyle and his colleagues at MIT got their hands and mass quantities of data about second borns and released a report. And here's what they found:
The second born (especially sons) have a 25-40% more likely chance of getting into serious trouble with their schools or with law enforcement. That's comparing them with first borns.
But you gotta ask why, right? Is it they get less attention than the first child from parents? By the time the second kid comes along, the parents are worn out? Here's what Doyle suggested 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 labor market and what we find in delinquency. It’s just very difficult to separate those two things because they happen at the same time.”
It doesn't mean your second born child will definitely be a troublemaker in his/her life. It just means they have a greater chance to be. So...
watch that kid like a hawk.
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