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September 6, 2008 12:34:54 AM CDT

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Oldest Kids Take Lead in Sibling Rivalry

Posted Jun 22, 07 9:29 AM CDT in Science & Health 

(Newser) – Big siblings have long suspected it, and now science backs them up: Oldest children have slightly higher IQs than younger kids. Family dynamics, not biological factors, account for the 3-point discrepancy, which holds up for children who become the oldest after the firstborn dies. That tiny gap may mean the difference between a "name" college and a state school.

Oldest kids don't just get more parental attention—they benefit from mentoring younger siblings. Researchers looked at records for Norwegian men and say the results, which appear today in the journal Science, likely extend to women. The sample, of more than 240,000 men, was large enough to be significant, the Times reports; one psychologist calls it "a dream come true."

Source New York Times

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  (http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/?id=1238689&refnum=572910&Lang=en)
  (http://www.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/newstuff/brain/using_brain.htm)
  (http://introengelsk.cappelen.no/c35027/artikkel/vis.html?tid=35375)
Raul Castro, second left, Cuba's acting president, stands with unidentified family members at a ceremony in honor of his late wife Vilma Espin Guillois, one of the communist nation's most politically...   (Associated Press)
RELIG GRAHAMLIBRARY 16 CH   (KRT Photos)
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