Firstborns, Only Children, Sex and Field Independence
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13666162 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Delia L Kinsolving (West Virginia Wesleyan College, corresponding author), Ronald N Bone (West Virginia Wesleyan College) |
| Year | 1971 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 126-126 |
| Publication date | 1971-08-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychological Reports (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-2941 • E-ISSN: 1558-691X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2466/pr0.1971.29.1.126 |
| PMID | 5093040 |
| OpenAlex | W2315862262 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 2 |
Recent critiques of research on birth order (Sampson, 1965; Warren, 1966) have questioned the practice of including only children in the category of oldest or firstborn. Also, many investigators combine scores for males and females despite a growing concern with sex differences. The purpose of this study was to determine the comparability of only and firscborns, of both sexes, with respect to the traic of field independence which has previously been linked to effects of birth order (Stewart, 1967). A 2 by 2 factorial design involving sex and birth order (only versus oldest) was utilized with rod-and-frame scores as the dependent variable. Oldest Ss were selected from volunteers from two-sibling families to control for family size. Each S was tested individually and a field independence score was derived by compucing the mean deviation from the upright over 8 trials. An analysis of the data showed both effects of birth order and sex nonsignificant (Fs < 1.00), however, the birth X sex interaction was significant (F = 4.60, df = 1/36, p < .05 ), with mean rod-and-frame scores of 9.67 and 8.32 for males and 7.44 and 10.85 for females for only and firstborn classifications respectively. These results support previous criticisms (e.g., Sampson, 1965) of combining data for only and firscborns at least for field independence. These data also lend support to the finding of differential birth order-field independence effects (Stewart, 1967)
Birth order · Comparability · Developmental psychology · Firstborn · Independence (probability theory · Population · Sociology · Statistics · Birth, Development, and Health · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Mathematics · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
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