Big brother is helping you … success of eldest child can have ‘spillover’ effect, boosting exam results of their younger brothers and sisters
The stereotype has long held that firstborn children go on to be bossy high flyers who leave their younger siblings behind. It’s a cliche some might dispute – from David Miliband, who watched his younger brother snatch the Labour leadership from under his nose, to Hilary du Pré, who saw her burgeoning musical talent eclipsed by her younger sister Jacqueline. Then there was Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who thought his poetry was good until Christina came along, and Jamie Murray, a star tennis player, who found himself outclassed by his little brother Andy.
But now a study suggests that the best efforts of the eldest child in a family can boost the performance of their younger brothers and sisters, in what the academics are calling the “sibling spillover effect”. Looking for the first time at how children from the same families get on at school, economists from the University of Essex found that the efforts of the oldest child did have an impact on how well their brothers and sisters got on in the classroom.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.
The stereotype has long held that firstborn children go on to be bossy high flyers who leave their younger siblings behind. It’s a cliche some might dispute – from David Miliband, who watched his younger brother snatch the Labour leadership from under his nose, to Hilary du Pré, who saw her burgeoning musical talent eclipsed by her younger sister Jacqueline. Then there was Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who thought his poetry was good until Christina came along, and Jamie Murray, a star tennis player, who found himself outclassed by his little brother Andy.
But now a study suggests that the best efforts of the eldest child in a family can boost the performance of their younger brothers and sisters, in what the academics are calling the “sibling spillover effect”. Looking for the first time at how children from the same families get on at school, economists from the University of Essex found that the efforts of the oldest child did have an impact on how well their brothers and sisters got on in the classroom.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.