In our collective imagination, the place we occupy in a siblings is far from harmless. Being a only child or the latest addition is often synonymous, in the eyes of others, of being a pampered child, almost too spoiled. The cadet sometimes drags the image of the one we gladly forget, a little invisible. As for the elder, he often endorses in spite of himself the weight of parental expectations and responsibilities. A new study, published in Epic Research, could come to validate some of these received ideas.
According to the HuffPost, which brings together the main conclusions of the study, the team of scientists analyzed medical records of more than 180,000 children. They found that the firstborn was 48% more likely to suffer from anxiety and 35% more able to undergo a depression, compared to other children of the family. This observation also applies to unique children.
Biological and societal explanations
Unfortunately, the study does not examine why unique children and those born first are more likely to receive these diagnoses, but it identifies the order of birth as a potential marker of risk of anxiety and depression. However, there are still some possible explanations.
First, the unique and older children suffer the first attempted education of their parents, “”and this may differ considerably from the way in which they raise the following children ”underlines the media. In the past, everyone was exposed to parenthood throughout their life: we were young parents, and before that, we took care of his brothers and sisters. “”On the other hand, without this experience, the new parents of today, often anxious, are faced with a steep learning curve ”explains Molly Fox, biological anthropologist at the University of California in Los Angeles.
In addition, it is well established that the uterine environment influences the health and development of the child. And each pregnancy has unique conditions, with variations that can have long -term effects. For example, according to Molly Fox, mothers particularly depressed or stressed during their first pregnancy “Emit biochemical signals that prepare the first girl for accelerated maturation”. This child would therefore return to puberty earlier, which could explain the increased risk of anxiety and depression in the firstborn and unique children compared to others. So to speak, everything could already be played before you even be born.
