![]() ![]() It has been scientifically proved that birth order is positively linked to personality, especially in the realm of traits such as creativity, independence, intelligence, competitiveness, and tendency to be extroverted or shy. Research has been conducted regarding the impact of birth order on personality characteristics of an individual. She wants that parents should be careful about the younger child idolizing the oldest child, leaving out the middle one. ![]() Hilary Letts, founder of the Successful Learning Institute in Wirral holds that Middle Child Syndrome can arise when parents stop seeing each child as an individual, she explains: It is easy to say that one child takes after one parent and another after the other parent, but then the other child is not included. They recommend a three-year gap between births because the first 36 months of a child’s mental growth requires extra attention from its parents. Some psychologists argue that middle child syndrome affects the parents rather than their offspring, claiming that children’s behavior is molded by how their mother and father handle and teach them. While the first-born gets praised for being the first at everything and the youngest can get away with murder due to cuteness, the middle child ends up competing for attention, love and a little respect (Stoney 1). She says that the middle child does not have a significant place in the family. Stoney feels it’s quite a chronic disorder and can be quite damaging. The syndrome she talks about is the Middle Child Syndrome. There’s no cure and no way out” (Stoney 1). This syndrome has caused me great emotional and psychological heartache, not to mention many sleepless nights. Melina Stoney says: “I was born with a disorder that causes me to experience symptoms such as loneliness, depression, lack of motivation, self-loathing and low self-esteem. John Rosemond advices that in order to keep this syndrome at a minimum he should be kept mentally prepared of the third child’s arrival and give him all the attention he desires (Rosemond 66). He wants the freedom and privilege given to the oldest and the attention given to the youngest. The middle child becomes a study in conflict and contradiction. This shuffling of roles causes what amounts to an identity crisis and often results in attention seeking behavior characteristic of “middle child syndrome”. He has to relinquish his role as the “baby” to become the “middle child”. When the third child arrives, the eldest child retains his status of being the oldest, but the second child has to make changes. Middle born children according to Adler are the ones likely to develop favorably, however, since they never occupy the pathogenic position of pampered only child (Ewen 96). “He behaves as if he were in a race as if someone were a step or two in front and he had to hurry to get ahead of him”. ![]() The middle child experiences pressure from both sides. It may even be tempered and have a take it or leave it attitude or could become a fighter of injustice. Adler’s theory postulates that a middle child in the family may feel squeezed out of a position of privilege and significance. US psychologist Alfred Adler developed a theory that linked a child’s personality to its order of birth. ![]()
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