Birth Order Effects Parental Response Effects Development Of Children

First, parents with two or more children should be more willing to punish their older children who engage in risky behaviour in order to influence the actions of their later-born children. Second, to the extent that parents can establish such reputations, their older children are less likely to engage in risky behaviour as teens. In essence, the reputation model implies that risk-taking of adolescent offspring and parental responses to such behaviour vary systematically by birth order.