Birth Order and Health Status in a British National Sample

Kaplan, Bernice A.; Mascie‐Taylor, C. G. N.; Boldsen, Jesper L.

doi:10.1017/s0021932000006775

Cited by 24 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…In line with this idea, primogeniture (first offspring inheritance) is widespread in human populations [for a review, see 38], and firstborns tend to end up in an advantaged position during upbringing with regard to both health [29], [62] and educational achievement [34], [63]. In accordance with this, our results showed that firstborn sons were those who gave birth to the largest numbers of offspring, and this is presumably because they began reproduction earlier.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…By contrast, later-born children can be out-competed for resources that are most critical in early childhood. For example, they are less likely than firstborns to attend infant clinics and to receive vaccination against childhood diseases [29], are more poorly nourished than firstborns [30], [31], and in large families, they run a higher risk of experiencing accidents during early childhood [32]. Associations between birth order and educational level have also been found; usually suggesting that firstborns are advantaged [28], [33]–[36].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…42], [43], [44], others found the opposite [e.g. 28], [29], [45], [46], at least one [47] found a U-shape mortality risk during the first nine months (elevated risk for first- and third-borns in Bangladesh) and some have found no effect at all [23]. These contradictions could be due to different balances in the relative influences of low birthweight and health in firstborns, and insufficient parental resources directed towards the health and safety of later-borns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Middleborns Disadvantaged? Testing Birth-Order Effects on Fitness in Pre-Industrial Finns

2009

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Parental investment is a limited resource for which offspring compete in order to increase their own survival and reproductive success. However, parents might be selected to influence the outcome of sibling competition through differential investment. While evidence for this is widespread in egg-laying species, whether or not this may also be the case in viviparous species is more difficult to determine. We use pre-industrial Finns as our model system and an equal investment model as our null hypothesis, which predicts that (all else being equal) middleborns should be disadvantaged through competition. We found no overall evidence to suggest that middleborns in a family are disadvantaged in terms of their survival, age at first reproduction or lifetime reproductive success. However, when considering birth-order only among same-sexed siblings, first-, middle- and lastborn sons significantly differed in the number of offspring they were able to rear to adulthood, although there was no similar effect among females. Middleborn sons appeared to produce significantly less offspring than first- or lastborn sons, but they did not significantly differ from lastborn sons in the number of offspring reared to adulthood. Our results thus show that taking sex differences into account is important when modelling birth-order effects. We found clear evidence of firstborn sons being advantaged over other sons in the family, and over firstborn daughters. Therefore, our results suggest that parents invest differentially in their offspring in order to both preferentially favour particular offspring or reduce offspring inequalities arising from sibling competition.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Middleborns Disadvantaged? Testing Birth-Order Effects on Fitness in Pre-Industrial Finns

2009

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“…For example, Horton () finds that later‐born children in the Philippines received less nourishment than first‐born, as assessed through children's height and weight. A number of studies have found that in developed countries and developing countries, later‐born children are less likely to be vaccinated (Barreto and Rodrigues ; Kaplan, Mascie‐Taylor, and Boldsen ). First‐borns often have higher educational achievements than subsequent siblings (Black, Devereux, and Salvanes ; Conley and Glauber ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Periods During Childhood and Adolescence

Berg

Lundborg

Nystedt

et al. 2014

Journal of the European Economic Association

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We identify the ages that constitute sensitive (or critical) periods in children's development towards their adult health status, skills, and human capital. For this, we use data on families migrating into Sweden from countries that are poorer, with less healthy conditions. Late-life health is proxied by adult height and other adult outcomes. The relation between siblings' ages at migration and their adult outcomes allows us to estimate the causal effect of conditions at specific childhood ages. We effectively exploit that, for siblings, the migration occurs simultaneously in calendar time but at different developmental stages (ages). We find evidence that the period just before the puberty growth spurt constitutes a critical period for adult height and we find related critical periods for adult cognition, mental health, and education. (

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“…A previous study using the same data base (Kaplan and Mascie-Taylor 1991) shows that various childhood disease frequencies relate to birth order. In this study it was found that first born are more likely to receive the requisite number of immunizations, to be cared for in age-graded specialty clinics, to have fewer long absences from school, and to have a better socio-economic environment in which to develop than do children born later in the mother's reproductive life span, although first and second born children in more affluent families are more prone to early childhood asthma.…”

mentioning

confidence: 90%

Mother's age, birth order and health status in a British national sample

Kaplan

Mascie‐Taylor²

1992

Medical Anthropology

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Using data from a longitudinal study of a national sample of British children, it is shown that mother's age and experience with child rearing are related to the attention paid to the child's health. Younger mothers, whose children are usually the first born, tend to be more concerned with health care facility use than are older mothers of children born subsequently. Younger mothers more often take their child to infant and toddler clinics, and are more likely to have their child immunized against the most threatening of childhood diseases. It is also the younger mothers who more often seek medical care for their children in addition to that provided in the infant and toddler clinics, more often have their child in hospital overnight, and more often report the child to be sickly (less healthy) than do older mothers with several children.

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Birth Order and Health Status in a British National Sample

Abstract: Analysis of British National Child Development Study data corroborates the long held views that first born children tend to get more medical surveillance than those of later birth order, and that there is a direct relationship between achieved family size and social status.

Cited by 24 publications

References 11 publications

Middleborns Disadvantaged? Testing Birth-Order Effects on Fitness in Pre-Industrial Finns

Middleborns Disadvantaged? Testing Birth-Order Effects on Fitness in Pre-Industrial Finns

Critical Periods During Childhood and Adolescence

Mother's age, birth order and health status in a British national sample

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