Are you stricter with your firstborn?

Teens find it’s tough at the top…

Are your kids a whole range of ages? If so then you’re likely to be way more strict with your teen if they have much younger siblings. It’s apparently driven by your desire to set a strict example for those kid brothers and sisters, says new research from the University of Maryland, Duke University and Johns Hopkins University.

Researchers in the study reckoned that parental concern for their reputation as disciplinarians with the younger children would be a powerful motivator and they were proved right… sort of. While the study concluded that parental control is effective in modifying risky adolescent behavior in many cases it stopped with the oldest child because parental resolve tended to dwindle as their other children grew up. “Tenderhearted parents find it harder and harder to engage in ‘tough love’ when they have fewer young children in the house, since they have less incentive to uphold reputations as disciplinarians,” says University of Maryland economist, Ginger Gin, one of three co-authors of the study and herself an older sister and a parent of two. “As a result, lastborn and only children, knowing that they can get away with much more than their older brothers and sisters, may be more likely to engage in risky behaviors.”

In their analysis, the researchers found that having one additional younger sibling lowers the likelihood of an adolescents dropping out of high school by 3 percentage points. This amounts to one eighth of the average dropout rate of the sample (24%). The probability of parental financial support to a rebellious child is significantly lower if the family still has another child under age 18 – for example, the probability of parents providing free room and board is 4.5 percentage points lower to an adult child who dropped out of school and 9.5 percentage points lower to an adult daughter who had a baby as a teen. These reductions are sizable given the sample average of living with parents after age 18 is about 20%

“Parents often worry about how forceful a stand to take in response to their older children’s behavior,” says Johns Hopkins sociologist Lingxin Hao. “Our study finds that some parents are successfully using this strategy.” The researchers recommend that policy interventions to reduce dropping out of school, teenage childbearing and other risky behaviors should emphasize the role of parents as well as peer pressure.

 

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