The Relationship between Children’s Birth Orders and Their Social Competence

The significance of sibling ordinal position as a determinant of behavior has long been debated in both past and present literature. A correlation between behavior problems in firstborn children and male children has been suggested. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between birth order and children’s social competence. Data of forty-three head start children with ages ranging from 3 to 5, collected by a larger study over 3 years, were used for analyses. Teachers of these children were given a Social Competence Behavior Evaluation to rate children’s social behaviors in the classrooms. Sibling data reported from the parents along with SCBE scores were analyzed using a two-tailed Pearson Correlation test. Though no significant sibling ordinal position effects were found, the number of siblings and the age of first-born sibling were found to be related to children’s behaviors