Second-born children are families' biggest troublemakers, study reveals

30 March 2020, 11:52 | Updated: 15 December 2021, 12:02

The eldest siblings take the wrap for a lot of things, but a study shows that they aren't necessarily the naughtiest.

Younger siblings always get away with everything, or so the eldest sibling would say.

Parents often give the first-born child the tough rules and biggest telling-offs, with their younger brothers and sisters getting away with murder.

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However, a study reveals that the second-born children are in fact the biggest troublemakers... interesting.

Joseph Doyle, an economist from MIT in the USA discovered that second-born children are more likely to misbehave, and it's mostly to do with how their parents bring them up.

The MIT Sloan School report has shown that second-born children are 25 to 40 per cent more likely to get in major trouble in school and even with the law - so keep an eye on them during lockdown.

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The experts believe that this is strongly related to how strict parents are with their first born and how they tend to go easy in comparison on their second-born.

Mr Doyle revealed to NPR, “The firstborn has role models, who are adults.

"And the second, later-born children have role models who are slightly irrational 2-year-olds, you know, their older siblings.

"Both the parental investments are different, and the sibling influences probably contribute to these differences we see in the labor market and what we find in delinquency."

He continued: "It's just very difficult to separate those two things because they happen at the same time.”

This information will undoubtedly divide opinion among families!