A study conducted by German researchers revealed that the IQ of the first born is usually higher.

Of course, being older doesn't always mean that you're the wisest of your siblings, but rather that you probably get more attention and love.

In a report published by the American "powerofpositivity" website, writer Christine Lawrence said that parents spend more time with their first child, and this amount of attention affects his IQ.

Since parents only have one child to take care of, they invest more energy and effort in his upbringing, and have more time to teach him to read, write and other skills.

With the advent of the second or third child, parents will likely have other commitments and busy schedules that make allocating a lot of time to children born later difficult.

But this does not mean that parents love their later children less, but rather the difficult reality makes them struggle to reconcile family life with other responsibilities.

The writer mentioned that parents learn ways of parenting with the first child.

In this "experimental" stage, the parents seek to correct all the misconceptions they have been raised with.

But after getting used to the feeling of parenting, the parents become more permissive of the later children.

Babies born later may have more freedom, and they won't have to follow the many strict rules that the first baby grew up on.

Thus, they will not benefit from their parents' constant attention as a first child.

A firstborn child gets more mental stimulation through parental involvement in educational activities (Shutterstock)

How is the first child the most intelligent?

Birth order is not always a determining factor in determining a child's IQ, but this study found that the first child usually had a slightly higher IQ.

Researchers from the University of Leipzig studied the birth order of 20,000 people from the US, UK and Germany.

The researchers focused on assessing intelligence based on verbal ability and general IQ tests.

The researchers also administered personality tests to the adult participants on the five personality traits that include openness to experience, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extroversion.

Researchers have revealed that the first born children have an average IQ of 1.5 points higher than the children born after them.

Therefore, it seems that being the oldest child has a slight effect on your intelligence.

The results determined that the oldest child had a 60% higher IQ.

The study also revealed that birth order does not affect personality traits.

Other studies have confirmed the theory that an older child has a higher IQ.

A study published in the journal Human Resource found that firstborns do better academically as their parents tend to invest more in their education, giving them an advantage over their siblings.

The researchers also found that these children scored better on cognitive tests than their younger siblings of the same age.

Extended National Survey

The findings were based on a time-spanned national survey of youth and children, which included data on thousands of young people aged 14 to 21.

The survey began in 1979, and asked questions about employment, income, education, family life, and other basic information.

Researchers have been careful to interview participants at the start of the study and every two years since 2014.

“I was amazed at how much parenting styles affect a child’s cognitive abilities early in life,” said Ji-Yun Liman, co-author and economic expert at the Analysys Group in Boston.

"New parents tend to be more aware of how their behavior affects their firstborn. However, they are not strict with later children," she added.

The survey began in 1979 and included data on thousands of young people between the ages of 14 and 21 (pixels).

Advantages of the first born

While the study found that fathers provide the same amount of love and affection for all their children, it was found that older children get more mental stimulation by engaging parents in educational activities such as reading, teaching the alphabet and playing with them.

Similar to the previous study, the authors found that parenting styles had no effect on children's personalities, but that the first born children had more confidence, especially with regard to their intelligence and academic performance.

In addition, the study revealed that a mother's cautious behavior changes during her pregnancy with her subsequent children.

When it comes to breastfeeding, mothers during their second pregnancy avoid breastfeeding their babies.

In contrast, studies reveal that breastfed babies have better cognitive performance as they get older.

It is clear that parents' behaviors and habits drastically affect children.

The first child may have more advantages, but parents should try to give each subsequent child the same amount of love and attention.

Early life experiences lastingly affect a child's academic success.

Parents can count on the older child for help with responsibilities such as babysitting, reading, changing diapers, feeding and playing with his younger siblings.

They often ask the older child to help out with some household chores.

This reduces the burden on parents and contributes to instilling a sense of responsibility in the older child.

Parents spend more time with their first child and this interest increases his IQ (Getty Images)

lucky maiden

Being the oldest child in the family not only imposes a major responsibility on you, but brings you many benefits.

Your parents probably had more time to spend with you when you were a child, which helped you develop basic skills like reading.

They also had fewer responsibilities and more energy to invest in your academic success and emotional health.

For this reason, if you are the firstborn in your family, you should consider yourself lucky.

Your parents may have taken a stricter educational approach with you, but this is due to their devoting a lot of time to ensuring your success and excellence in your future life on all fronts.