Older brothers make you shorter

Children with older brothers and sisters are more at risk of impaired growth in early life, according to a study carried out by the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Children who have older brothers are most affected as research shows that by age 10, they will be significantly shorter than average. Children born last, the study showed, especially in larger families, grow up in an environment where their parents are more stretched for time, money and attention.

The study involved more than 14,000 families in the 1990's and found that when socioeconomic factors were taken into account, children's height was strongly dependant on the number of siblings they had. In a family of four children, the siblings were 2.5cm shorter than average. The youngest child was most affected.

The study also found that if you are a child with older sisters, the affects were milder, probably because boys are more demanding so less attention is lavished on younger siblings.

In another study of more than 240,000 military records by Petter Kristensen, of the University of Oslo, it was suggested that firstborns, compared with younger siblings, have a statistically higher IQ of up to 2.3 points.

Thanks to The Guardian, 13/09/07

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Last Modified: 13/09/2007

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