In a recent paper “Strategic Parenting, Birth Order, and School Performance,” economists Joseph Hotz and Juan Patano cite longitudinal survey data to support the hypotheses that (1) parents are generally stricter with their first-born children than they are with younger siblings and (2) first-born children generally perform better in school than their younger siblings, phenomena, the economists contend, are related.
Earlier born siblings (1) are more likely to be subject to TV watching rules and (2) face more intense parental homework monitoring, Hotz and Patano contend. Additionally, “mothers are more likely to report that they would increase the supervision of one of their children in the event that child brought home a worse than expected report card when the child in question was one of her earlier-born children.” The economists conclude that these factors, at least in part, contribute to the phenomenon of first-born’s superior school performance.
Slate reporter Matthew Yglesias has a further discussion of the study.
