User:OliviaMOjeda/sandbox

[copied from Middle Child Syndrome]

Middle child syndrome is the feeling of exclusion by middle children, due directly to their placement in their family's birth order. This alleged effect is supposed to occur because the first child is more prone to receiving privileges and responsibilities (by virtue of being the oldest), while the youngest in the family is more likely to receive indulgences. The second child (or middle child) no longer has their status as the baby and is left with no clear role in the family, or a feeling of being "left out". There is notably often a negative connotation surrounding the term "middle child syndrome." It is debated whether the family dynamic imposes this negative attitude or if middle children develop it themselves, or if it exists at all. Currently, the APA dictionary defines it as a hypothetical condition, with no reliable evidence showing a strong correlation on the psychological impacts of birth order.

The stereotype for middle children that is often presented by society is that they are often excellent communicators, have great interpersonal relationship skills, and are prominently empathetic. They are also sometimes called the peacemaker within the family, mediating between the entitled older sibling and pampered younger. It is assumed under the syndrome that these traits arise out of learning how to function in their ill-defined family role.

When thinking about the theory of birth order and the studies that have been done it is important to remember that correlation does not equal causation. Many similar theories regarding birth order seek to classify and box in personality aspects of individuals based on birth order. However, in recent years some have noted that family dynamics have changed in that there are often larger gaps between children, there are merged families with step-siblings as well as blended families because of adoption. All of these factors can affect the way siblings view themselves within the family group.

'''Not only do more modern family dynamics add more support to the theory against middle child syndrome, but research has continued time and time again to find major flaws in the idea of birth order having any effect on personality. Even with the studies that do show some correlation, a major flaw of a lot of the studies tends to be that the researchers are comparing data between families instead of within-family data. This means that instead of including siblings of the children in the data research, instead they are using data from one child in each family and comparing it with one child from another family and not taking into account the importance of the child's environment. One study, that did use within-family data, found that after searching for variance between extroversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, self-reported intellect, IQ, imagination, and openness to experience that no trait was specifically linked to being a middle child, even after looking at the data in many different ways. Overtime, there only continues to be evidence that middle child syndrome is not innate within families.'''