The results are in. And the
perfect age gap between siblings is…
Science has answered all your
questions about birth order and the gap between kids. Are you ready for the
result?
Four years is the ‘perfect’ age
gap between siblings.
And first-born girls rule. Just
ask Hilary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, JK Rowling and yes, Beyonce.
Yes,
she runs the world. Beyonce’s a first-born,.
These are the main findings
from a new study about birth order that’s
got us all examining our families for who’s going to look after us in our old
age. Will it be the successful and wealthy first-born? Or will they be off
conquering the world, and we’ll have to count on that compassionate and
creative younger child, who never quite found their financial groove?
Simplistic? Ridiculous? Of
course, but science says it’s so.
The new study, by the Institute
for Social and Ecomonic Research, University of Essex, UK, examined 1,503
family groups – 3,532 individuals – and found that first-born females were 13%
more ambitious than first-born boys, and that first-borns in general were 16%
more likely to go on to higher education than their younger siblings.
The only time that siblings of
different ages were equally likely to go on to higher education was
if there was a four-year gap between them. The wider the age gap, the more
likely university becomes.
The study doesn’t show the
reasons for this, but it doesn’t need to, as all parents know – when you’ve got
little kids close together, you’re too knackered for all that improving,
educational stuff. Or is that just us?
So, as you can see, the
standard for success in this study was about academic achievement, rather than
other measures of health and happiness,
so we’ll choose to take that with a pinch of salt, for the sake of our second,
third (and fourth) child.
