[originaltext] Were you the first or the last child in your family? Or were

Were you the first or the last child in your family? Or were you a middle or an only child? Some people think it matters where you were born in your family. But there are different ideas about what birth order means. Some people say that oldest children are smart and strong-willed. They are very likely to be successful (29) . The reason for this is simple. Parents have a lot of time for their first child; they give him or her a lot of attention. So this child is very likely to do well. An only child will succeed for the same reason. What happens to the other children in the family? Middle children don’t get so much attention, so they don’t feel that important (30) . If a family has many children, the middle one sometimes gets lost in the crowd. The youngest child, though, often gets special treatment. He or she is the baby. Often this child grows up to be funny and charming. Do you believe these ideas about birth order too? A recent study saw things quite differently. The study found that first children believed in family rules. They didn’t take many chances in their lives. They usually followed orders. Rules didn’t mean as much to later children in the family. They went out and followed their own ideas. They took chances and they often did better in life (31) .