Psychosocial Correlates of Birth Order in Bangladesh

Throughout history, hierarchy based on age difference and birth order played a pivotal role in family relationships. Although age difference and birth order remain constant during the entire life course, the social construction of elder/younger, based on the above two, is more malleable. With a view to exploring the cultural practices relative to positional sibling roles in modern families, we conducted a short-term observational study upon twenty individuals from seven families in Northwestern Bangladesh. The findings of this qualitative study indicate that although age difference, gender, quality of relationships, and family structure affect the predominance of a particular pattern of sibling relationship and behavior, some crucial psychosocial characteristics are discernible. The first-born children are emotionally unstable, conservative in nature, and tend to hold the family traditions and social values securely. They also become passionate believer, care giver, responsible, and more sympathetic toward others. On the contrary, the latter-borns behave more liberally especially with regard to financial matters. They also pursue specific goal-oriented interests more often than their senior counterparts do. Furthermore, latter-born children are more radical, less emotional, innovative, and courageous by nature. Finally, the middle-born children are found to be particularly introvert. Thus, the place of individuals within the family acts as an influencing factor that shapes human social behavior. This paper is expected to contribute to generating further theoretical and empirical discourses on the intersections between birth order and psychosocial characteristics of siblings in families around the globe.