Does sibling gender affect personality traits?

Bart H.H Golsteyn,Cécile A.J Magnée

doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102016

Bart H.H Golsteyn, Cécile A.J Magnée

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102016

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Abstract

This paper studies whether sibling gender affects personality traits. We use the idea that if parents decide to have a second child, it is random whether they will have a boy or a girl. Therefore, the relationship between the second-born sibling's gender and the first sibling's personality traits is causal. We employ longitudinal data from a large British cohort which is followed from birth onwards. The dataset includes personality traits at age 10 and 16. Our main result is that oldest boys in a household are more agreeable if their next-born sibling is a girl. This effect is robust across age (10 and 16), when controlling for among others family size, and when applying corrections for multiple hypothesis tests. Agreeableness is an important trait in life as it has been shown to correlate positively among others with being employed, having a skilled job, savings, and life satisfaction.

Highlights

The environment in which children grow up has vital implications for later in life outcomes.Parents, teachers, and peers determine choices children make
This paper studies the effects of the gender of the sibling on personality traits
We add to the existing literature by studying the effect of sibling gender on a broad range of personality traits at two ages

Summary

Introduction

The environment in which children grow up has vital implications for later in life outcomes. Teachers, and peers determine choices children make. Studies have shown that the number of siblings, their birth order, and the age difference between siblings affect outcomes such as personality traits, human capital accumulation, and wages.. Our paper investigates whether sibling gender affects personality traits. As proposed by Detlefsen et al (2018), siblings may affect each other because they compete for parental attention or because they learn from each other. The effects are theoretically hard to predict as they may go in opposite directions. Children may behave differently from their siblings in order to capture more parental attention (Sulloway, 1996; Hertwig et al, 2002)

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