Has anyone ever done research on how adoption affects birth order?

Question

in the adoptive family or in the first family?

My sister and I were both genetically firstborn children, but she was shoved into a younger sibling slot because of my adoption before her birth.

Likewise, my oldest half sibling is genetically a second born child, shoved into a firstborn slot, because of my adoption...

Just wondering if anyone knows of any birth order research out there that takes this into consideration.....

Answer 1

I don't know of any research on that in particular, but my half-sister (who was adopted as an infant) is my mother's first born, her bio father's middle, her adoptive mother's only and her adoptive father's youngest.  So she is every birth order all in herself.  But she was not raised as an oldest or middle.  She was raised as an only/youngest and those are the traits she displays.  She's too focused and productive for a youngest and too friendly and outgoing for an only.

I would say that if your adoption occured when you were an infant then you and you're half-sister are first borns and your adopted sister is the baby.

Answer 2

My husband and I have discussed this at length and have talked to people who have adopted out of birth order. We currently have a foster-adopt placement who is my husband's 4th cousin. He is 11 months old.

When we first set out to adopt, we were looking at an older sibling group (at least school aged, possibly teenagers) and now we're considering either just one older child or perhaps letting him be an only child. The reason we're still considering one or two older kids though is because he spent 7 months in a foster home with older sibs and we also had a foreign exchange daughter when he was placed.  We wouldn't consider preschoolers at this point; that would disrupt birth order.

I think it is important to consider the children coming in and their birth order too though. I've done some research and found out that if the child is less than three, it's not such a problem to place older kids with them... this is good because I want to be done adopting by the time my foster license expires in 2010. He'll be 2 1/2 then. But again, I might be done dealing with social services for good by the time he finalizes.

Answer 3

We discussed this in class this week. GOOD social workers recommend considering birth order when adopting because it can cause confusion and problems.

There is a book, The Birth Order Book that has a special section on the subject.