Birth order: Self-injurious and suicidal behaviour among adolescents

Abstract

A sample of 2553 children and adolescents in a psychiatry clinic in Germany were assessed using a structured interview inventory that included history of self-injurious behaviour, suicidal intent and socially disruptive and threatening behaviour, and diverse socio-demographic variables (the basis documentation or 'Ba-Do'). Birth order was associated with both suicidal and self-injurious behaviour, middle children being most likely to exhibit such behaviour. Females were more than twice as likely to have self-injured than males. Comparisons of birth order groups within gender found no significant differences in suicidal behaviour between birth positions for males, however among females, middle children were much more likely to have attempted suicide. Conversely, there was no difference in self-injurious behaviour among birth positions in females, but among males, middle children were significantly more likely to have self-injured than firstborns, only children or lastborns. The number of siblings in the family was significantly correlated with both suicidal history (r = 0.12, p < 0.001) and self-injurious behaviour (r = 0.10, p < 0.001). The risk of suicidal behaviour was highest for those with four or more siblings.

Family Patterns and Suicidal and Violent Behavior among Adolescent Girls—Genogram Analysis

“…According to McGoldrick et al [ 31 ], a middle sibling position can be related to the risk of getting lost, being reserved, or feeling anxiety due to comparisons with younger and older siblings; thus, it can be assumed that middle siblings constantly fight for attention. Similar observations were made by Kirkcaldy, Richardson-Vejlgaard, and Siefen [ 43 ], who added that this relationship can be modulated by siblings. Obviously, these issues need to be studied further.…”

Characterizing gender differences in nonsuicidal self-injury: Evidence from a large clinical sample of adolescents and adults

“…Early NSSI research primarily focused on understanding these behaviors in females, due to the assumption that females were more frequently affected than males [8, 9]. Variability in findings are evident, however, with some studies of adults indicating equal or higher prevalence in males when compared to prevalence rates in females [10, 11]. Similarly, within school-based adolescent samples, findings differ on rates across genders, with some data suggesting that gender differences occur more commonly in older adolescents [12–14].…”

Childhood Physical Abuse and Sociopathy: Is This Link Magnified among Firstborn Children?

“…For example, higher rates of self-injurious (among males) and suicidal (among females) behavior were found to be highest among middle-born children in one large (N = 2,553) psychiatric sample (Kirkcaldy, Richardson-Vejlgaard, & Siefen, 2009). In this study, sibship size was also significantly (p < .0001) correlated to suicidal behavior.…”

“…This association appears to be strong for both males and females with gender interactions typically not found (Briere & Elliott, 2003;Farrington, 2003;Krischer & Sevecke, 2008;Weiler & Widom, 1996;Weizmann-Henelius et al, 2010). At least one available study, however, has shown a gender by birth order interaction (described previously) on self-injurious behavior (Kirkcaldy et al, 2009). …”