What’s one thing that Bella Hadid, Jennifer Lopez, and Miley Cyrus all share in common? Apart from being fiercely independent women who have gone on to achieve exponential success in their respected industries, they’re middle children! If you’re a middle-born yourself, it’s more than likely that you’re familiar with the cliché that has had researchers divided for decades. But is there actually any truth to the controversy or is it just a false preconception? Does birth order really make a difference?
While is there no current scientific evidence supporting theories of middle child syndrome, many stand firm in the belief that middle-borns are unambitious, underestimated and often at times rebellious and overlooked due to the imbalance of parental attention between the firstborn and the youngest child.
Now Catherine Salmon, a Californian university psychology professor and author of The Secret Power of Middle Children, has crushed the ancient myth with new research revealing that middle children aren’t the embittered wallflowers that society labels them to be – in fact, they’re excellent communicators.
“In terms of undivided time and attention and effort, middleborns do lose out on that to a certain extent,” Salmon confirmed to Business Insider in a recent interview. Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t appear to have a negative impact as middleborns are thought to be more diplomatic and open-minded than their siblings.
Another one of Salmon’s studies has also revealed that children with a piggy-in-the-middle status are excellent romantic companions due to their ability to negotiate and appreciate different viewpoints.
There you have it middle kids, you’re actually quite remarkable in our books.
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