Birth Order and Family Learning Environments

Abstract

Discriminant analysis was used to examine relations between birth order and profiles of dimensions of family learning environments. Data were collected from 885 Australian families. Each family had an 11-yr.-old child and the analyses related to those children, 442 girls and 443 boys. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to assess the environmental dimensions of parents': achievement orientations, press for English, press for reading, press for independence, achievement-value orientations, and aspirations. Generally, the findings indicated that, although there was moderate separation among environmental profiles for girls and boys of different birth-order positions, there was also an extreme overlap of profiles among the groups.