Citation

Schuler EA. Am. J. Sociol. 1930; 36(1): 28-40.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1930, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/215282

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study is an attempt to discover the relationship between the position of a child in his sibship and the development of certain personality traits. Some abnormal behavior traits, when exhibited by adults, result in the diagnosis of insanity. Hence, a statistical analysis of the birth order and fraternity position of individuals committed as insane should reveal a relationship between these two factors, if such a relationship exists. It is very difficult to secure a sufficient number of complete and unequivocal records of the insane so far as birth-order data are concerned. Using certain methodological rules, however, data on about 1,200 cases are obtained. Analysis of these records leads to the conclusion that among the insane there is no very reliable or significant relation between incidence of insanity and position of the patient in his sibship when the sibship is larger than two. In fraternities of two, however, the insane individual is much more frequently the elder than the younger.