The Relationship of Birth Order and Socioeconomic Status to the Creativity of Preschool Children

Revisiting the Birth Order-Creativity Connection: The Role of Sibling Constellation

“…Although some authors suggest that firstborns should be less creative than laterborns because firstborns tend to be more conservative, conventional, and conforming (e.g., Sulloway, 1996), others argue that the overrepresentation of firstborns among eminent individuals indicates their higher creativity (e.g., Altus, 1966;Schachter, 1963). Previous empirical work supports both positions with some studies showing that firstborns are less creative than laterborns (e.g., Eisenman, 1964;Seay, 1985;Staffieri, 1970) and some providing evidence that firstborns are more creative than laterborns (e.g., Eisenman, 1987;Eisenman & Schussel, 1970;Lichtenwalner & Maxwell, 1969;Schubert, Wagner, & Schubert, 1977). Other studies support neither position obtaining no significant differences in creativity between first-and laterborns (e.g., Albaum, 1977;Cicirelli, 1967;Datta, 1968;Wilks & Thompson, 1979).…”

Birth Order and Divergent Thinking: A Meta-Analysis

“…This finding is consistent with several previous (non-meta-analytic) studies, which also concluded that first-born children scored higher in DT than middle-and later-born children (e.g., Aldous, 1970;Jawa, 1971;Srivastava & Thomas, 1991). Several explanations for this have been offered: (1) first-borns may receive greater intellectual stimulation from their families; (2) first-borns may receive more attention and resources from their parents; and (3) first-borns tend to develop personality traits that may support DT, such as autonomy, unlike later-borns who are less autonomous, often relying on their older siblings (Boling et al, 1993;Eisenman, 1987;Jarial, 1982;Lichtenwalner, 1968;Runco & Bahleda, 1987;Srivastava & Thomas, 1991). As discussed in the introduction, similar explanations are offered in the intelligence and birth order literature for first-borns being more intelligent than later-borns; thus, it seems that birth order may have a similar influence on individuals' cognitive abilities.…”

“…Since then, more empirical studies have been conducted, with conflicting findings. Some of these studies compared first-born and later-born children (Eisenman, 1964;Eisenman & Cherry, 1970;Eisenman & Schussel, 1970;Lichtenwalner, 1968;Staffieri, 1970); other studies compared children in different ordinal positions (i.e., only vs. first-vs. middle-vs. later-born) (Aldous, 1970;Gaynor & Runco, 1992;Jawa, 1971;Runco & Bahleda, 1987;Wilks & Thompson, 1979). These two types of studies will be examined in more detail below to discover which factors that might contribute to the inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between DT and birth order.…”

Reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles: Diversity of life experience mediates the relationship between family SES and creativity

“…Family socioeconomic status (SES), usually considered as the sum scores awarded for education, occupation, and average monthly income of the parents, is one of the most remarkable features of family background (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). Many studies have revealed that financially or culturally privileged children who are adopted into comparatively higher SES families, have more advantages for the fulfillment of creative abilities than lower SES children (Dudek & Runco, 1993;Hussain & Sajid, 1990;Lichtenwalner & Maxwell, 1969;Parsasirat, Foroughi, Yusooff, Subhi, Nen & Farhadi, 2013;Smith, 1965). For example, Parsasirat et al (2013) revealed that family economic status and parent education were positively associated with children's creativity.…”