If you grew up with one of those annoyingly intelligent, straight A-achieving older siblings, you’re in a good place (even if they got all the brains).
If you’re the youngest, odds are you know exactly what we’re talking about. It’s long been thought that older siblings are more ambitious, organized, and successful than their younger, more attention-seeking, rebellious, and free-spirited younger brothers and sisters.
But a lifetime label of the “creative one” isn’t such a bad thing; a new study by researchers at The University of Essex and University of York reveals that if your older siblings did well in school, it should have resulted in a spillover effect for you.
Researchers investigated the progress of 220,000 children over a four-year period, studying primary test results and GCSE scores (an academic qualification in England, Whales, and North Ireland). Perhaps surprising to some of us with siblings, the data showed that having a smarter older sibling who performs well academically rubs off on their younger brother or sister in a pretty significant way.
It found that for every extra exam grade achieved by an older sibling, the younger’s marks increased by around 4 per cent. Apparently, if the older does well on exams, the pressure is on the younger to step up to the plate.
The study also showed that the younger sibling benefitted the most when the older helped them with homework (so you’d have to have had a good older brother or sister for this to work). If the younger sibling looked up to the older, they would also emulate them in doing homework. The study also suggests that older siblings may pass along educational wisdom to their younger brothers and sisters – in everything from course selection to post-secondary options.
It also should be noted that this doesn’t work the other way around; no matter how academically inclined the younger sibling is, the older doesn’t benefit (we suspect the opposite, actually).
The study found that the spillover effect is especially true for children from less advantaged backgrounds.
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