The influence of birth order and sibling age gap on children’s sharing decision

Abstract

ABSTRACT The potential influences on children's sharing decision caused by birth order and sibling age gap were examined. A third-party resource allocation task was adopted to examine five- to six-year-old children's sharing decision when they expected a protagonist to allocate resources between two recipients with different social relationships. Children with sibling age gap less than three years tended to allocate resources with a closer recipient more often than those with sibling age gap more than three years. When siblings were more than three years apart in age, children allocated resources between a sibling and a friend, first-born children were more likely to choose a sibling than second-born children. However, when siblings' age gap was within three years, second-born children, in turn, were more willing to share with a sibling than first-born children. These results were attributed to the sibling relationships and the development level of the Theory of Mind.