To compensate for a perceived lack of attention, middle children may either act rebellious or try to people please. Their behavior is somewhat based off of their older sibling's personality. For example, if the older sibling is structured and responsible, the middle child might rebel to draw some of the attention away.
The middle child often feels the need to compete with both the younger and older sibling for parental attention. They might compete for attention between siblings, as they risk being ignored by one or the other. As they find themselves in the middle of everything, they may also become the peacemaker.
Characteristics of a Middle Child
They're good at being mediators and want fairness in situations. They're also trustworthy friends and work well as team members. Not as family-oriented as their siblings. They may have a stronger sense of not belonging than their siblings do.
The youngest gets more attention and fewer expectations. They wonder what they can do to be "special." The combination of less parental responsiveness and the “identity crisis” of not having a specific role in the family can make middle children feel less valued, so they may act out to get attention.
The survey concluded that parents tend to favour their youngest child over the elder. More than half of the parents quizzed said they preferred their youngest child, while only 26 per cent said that their favourite child was their eldest.
Overall, 38 percent of Americans who are the youngest in their family report they were the favorite, compared to 27 percent of those who were oldest. Middle children are the least likely to say they were a favorite child; only 20 percent believe they were.
Being a middle child is tough. You're a younger sibling, but also an older one, and you often just ended up being overshadowed by both — but not on August 12, a.k.a. Middle Child Day. It's finally your turn to shine and share what it was like growing up — and it's not all bad! Being independent from a young age.
And experts say middle children do tend to be more empathetic. As a middle child, I have multiple perspectives on sibling relationships that my older and younger siblings never had. When you're the middle child, you have an older role model to learn from or look up to, and a younger prodigy to teach.
They tend to feel left out
“They serve no clear family function. Thus, they may receive less attention from parents and oftentimes feel ignored and neglected.” In the eyes of the middle child, oldest siblings reap all the privileges and the babies get away with everything and need so much help.
Middle children are good at compromise (they have had to learn to be) and usually end up with someone most like them, but can really pair well with anyone. Middle children tend to be more satisfied with marriage in general, but they seem to pair best with spouses who are the youngest in their family.
No matter the situation, we're used to things not going our way. Therefore, the middle child is a resilient beast. We don't crumble under pressure (like the baby of the family), nor are we prone to getting a big head (like our older siblings). We're just strong and grounded AF.
"The stereotypical middle child is more sensitive, more distant from the family, even when they get along well, and often finds a path that's very different from the others, so they have a defined sense of self," says Dr. Daramus.
Middle children are more independent as they gain confidence. Middle children typically have more freedom and less pressure growing up. Sometimes they can even get away with more things as a kid. This, over time, leads to them developing more independence and confidence, according to Schumann.
According to researcher Katrin Schumann, middle kids are more likely to have strong social lives and flourishing careers too.
If you're a middle child, you don't have to be told twice that you're special. But as it turns out, middle children are actually becoming rare statistically as well. According to the Pew Research Center, by the late 1970s, the average mother had given birth to three or more kids, and thus had a middle child.
A new study shows that first-born children tend to be smarter than their siblings and second-born children are more likely to cause trouble. The University of Edinburgh study reported that the oldest child tends to have a higher IQ and thinking skills than their younger siblings.
As Catherine Salmon, a professor of psychology at the University of Redlands and coauthor of the book The Secret Power of Middle Children, told Mic, middle children become skilled in seeing things from the other person's perspective as a result of their childhood experiences, which makes them expert problem-solvers ...
Your success in life may be influenced by your birth order, according to the economist Sandra E. Black. Black points to research she and her colleagues have conducted that found that firstborns tend to be smarter, richer, and all-around more successful than their younger siblings.
According to Adler, the first born is more susceptible to depression because of high expectations of parents and suddenly losing the attention due to another sibling being born.
If you're the firstborn child, your birth order would be referred to as the oldest child. If you're the second born, you're a middle child—however, there can be multiple middle kids in a family.
“Middle child: the one who secretly keeps the family from falling apart.”
Middle-borns were found to put a lot of value in their relationships with other people and were more likely to have a close tight-knit group of friends. The middle child is also much less likely to cheat on a significant other than an eldest or youngest born.
“Parents tend to favour a child that is most like them, reminds them of themselves, or represents what they view as a success of parenting,” she says. “Younger children are most likely to have been raised by a parent who, over time and experience, is more confident and skilled in their child-raising.”
A subsequent body of research, building over the years in the journal Evolution & Human Behavior, has delivered results in conflict with the 1995 paper, indicating that young children resemble both parents equally. Some studies have even found that newborns tend to resemble their mothers more than their fathers.