Birth Order and Divergent Thinking: A Meta-Analysis Page: 2
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2 : A. M. ABDULLA ALABBASI FT AL.
The most common explanations for first-borns hav-
ing a higher IQ than later-borns are that: (a) parents
favor first-borns and, thus, there is more parental invest-
ment in raising first-borns, and (b) unlike later-borns,
first-borns grow up in a more stimulating intellectual
environment and have more opportunity and time to
interact with adults in their early years (Botzet, Rohrer,
& Arslan, 2020; Zajonc & Markus, 1975; Zyrianova,
Chertkova, & Pankratova, 2013). However, the way in
which birth order affects personality, and more specifi-
cally risk taking and openness to experience, is different.
According to Sulloway and Zweigenhaft (2010), unlike
older siblings who have already established their role in
the family, later-born children are challenged to think of
novel and unconventional ways in order to find a unique
role in the family and gain parental favor (Sulloway &
Zweigenhaft, 2010).
Compared with intelligence and personality, little is
known about the impact of birth order on creative
processes. This line of research began in 1869, but that
focused broadly on intelligence and provided a very
limited picture about the creativity-birth order relation-
ship (Galton, 1869). In the 1960s and 1970s, studies by
Eisenman and colleagues (Eisenman, 1964; Eisenman &
Cherry, 1970; Eisenman & Schussel, 1970) examined
family structure as related to creativity. Eisenman and
his colleagues hypothesized that first-borns are more
creative, as measured by tests of divergent thinking DT
tests. Since then, more empirical studies have been con-
ducted, with conflicting findings. Some of these studies
compared first-born and later-born children (Eisenman,
1964; Eisenman & Cherry, 1970; Eisenman & Schussel,
1970; Lichtenwalner, 1968; Staffieri, 1970); other studies
compared children in different ordinal positions (i.e.,
only vs. first- vs. middle- vs. later-born) (Aldous, 1970;
Gaynor & Runco, 1992; Jawa, 1971; Runco & Bahleda,
1987; Wilks & Thompson, 1979). These two types of
studies will be examined in more detail below to dis-
cover which factors that might contribute to the incon-
sistent findings regarding the relationship between DT
and birth order.
Comparisons of first- and later-born individuals
Early attempts to understand birth order's effect on DT
started with the hypothesis that first-born children are
more conforming and conservative than later-born chil-
dren. Therefore, later-born children should be more
original and creative compared with first-born children.
This hypothesis was first tested by Eisenman (1964),
who studied birth order among artistically creative stu-
dents. Eisenman administered the Creativity Design
Test, which assessed some types of DT, includingfluency, and found later-born children scored higher
on the test than first-borns, which supported his hypoth-
esis. However, in three subsequent studies with larger
sample sizes (Eisenman, 1987; Eisenman & Cherry,
1970; Eisenman & Schussel, 1970), Eisenman and col-
leagues concluded that first-born children were signifi-
cantly more creative than later-born children. Aldous
(1970) and Sellwood (1974) reported no significant dif-
ferences between the creativity of first- and later-born
children. For instance, Aldous (1970) administered the
Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) on
a sample of 620 male and female students and found
no significant difference attributable to the ordinal posi-
tion. Moreover, Sellwood (1974) used four measures of
DT (Franck Drawing Completion Test - which assesses
flexibility, originality, elaboration, asymmetry, and
abstraction - and three DT tests from the Guilford DT
battery) with a sample of 62 high school students and
found no significant differences between first- and later-
born children. Other results uncovered a significant dif-
ference between first- and later-born students, depend-
ing on gender and the tests employed. For example,
Boling, Boling, and Eisenman (1993) found that first-
born males scored higher than later-born males, while
later-born females scored higher than first-born females.
In a more recent study, Guo, Lin, and Guo (2018)
administered two DT tests (the Line Meanings test and
the Real-World Problem test) and found that fluency
and originality scores varied by gender where females
outperformed males in the Line Meanings test, while
there were no significant differences in Real-World
Problem test.
Given inconsistent findings in previous research that
examined the differences between first- and later-born
children, the present investigation used meta-analytic
methods to synthesize effect sizes from previous studies
with the hopes of clarifying whether or not first- and
later-born students differ in creative potential.
Comparisons of different ordinal positions
The second type of studies on birth order and creative
potential compared different ordinal positions. Some
included children who were only children (e.g.,
Aldous, 1970; Gaynor & Runco, 1992; Runco &
Bahleda, 1987; Wilks & Thompson, 1979), while others
did not (e.g., Farley, 1978; Jawa, 1971; Kaltsounis, 1978;
Srivastava & Thomas, 1991). As with the results
obtained in the comparison of first- vs. later-born chil-
dren, the results were inconsistent. For example, while
Runco and Bahleda (1987) concluded that only children
scored higher on verbal fluency and verbal originality
than children in other ordinal positions, Gaynor and
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Abdulla Alabbasi, Ahmed M.; Tadik, Harun; Acar, Selcuk & Runco, Mark A. Birth Order and Divergent Thinking: A Meta-Analysis, article, April 20, 2021; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1852178/m1/2/: accessed June 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT College of Education.