First-Born Children *Are* Smarter

“First-born children have better thinking skills, study says” in The Guardian highlights JHR-published study that finds parenting behavior results in cognitive advantages for first-born children.

“Researchers said the findings went some to way explaining the so-called birth order effect – which means children born earlier in a family have better wages and higher levels of education later in life. First-born children scored higher on tests including reading, matching letters, names, reading single words aloud and picture vocabulary tests.”

For the full study, see “The Early Origins of Birth Order Differences in Children’s Outcomes and Parental Behavior,” Jee-Yeon K. Lehmann, Ana Nuevo-Chiquero, and Marian Vidal-Fernandez.

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