Parental Attitudes Towards Chi :: essays research papers fc

A person’s gender, age, place of birth, accent, manners, etc., are the matters people take into account when describing or evaluating an individual. Birth order appears to be one of these matters as well. Birth order, as used in this paper, indicates a child’s place in the family. Birth order has an advantage of being easier to check than other characteristics. This type of study makes it possible to ask a person about their siblings without offending or taking too much of their time. Some individuals tend to determine the birth order of others simply by observing their behavior. Parents have a tendency of stereotyping their children according to their birth order. Thus, birth order brings up variations in the way the parents treat their children. Differences in parental attitudes and behaviors, in turn, greatly influence a child’s personality. Parental attitudes and behaviors refer to the way parents treat their children with regard to a child’s birth ord er. Although birth order and parental attitudes and behaviors tend to influence a child’s personality, a child’s place in the family does not explain everything about that child. Whether a child happens to be a firstborn, a lastborn, or somewhere in between, parents need to become aware of stereotyping by looking beyond it, and attempting to treat each child equally and uniquely. In today’s society parents pay different amounts of attention and attend differently to children of opposing birth order. Parents have distinct expectations for each of their offspring’s. A study done by Spitze and Logan showed that parental attitudes towards their children may be affected by their number, gender, and birth order. These factors also 2 influence the closeness the child feels towards his parents. Furthermore, the study shows that as the number of siblings increases in the family the oldest and youngest children tend to be closer to their parents than the middle children (Spitze and Logan 871). Parents also tend to have higher expectations for their oldest children than for children of any other birth order. New parents do not have much experience when they have their first child and therefore tend to be extremely strict with them. They want to be the "perfect" parents, setting and example for their firstborn so that he, in turn, would set a good example for later-borns. Not only do parents set high expectations on their oldest children, but they also look for children to satisfy all of their expectations.