Young army wives website

ABSTRACT

This study examines birth order within members of the military and their spouses.  Marital status, birth order, and personality traits were all investigated using an internet survey users could link to from various military support group websites. 

INTRODUCTION

The study was completed in February and March 2005 via a www.surveymonkey.com survey generated by the author.  It included nine questions:

• Gender of survey-taker
• Whether the survey-taker is a soldier or a significant other of a soldier
• Marital status
• Survey-taker’s birth order
• Survey-taker’s number and gender of siblings
• Spouse’s birth order
• Spouse’s number and gender of siblings
• Characteristics of survey-taker and spouse
• Do you feel birth order affects your personality or how you behave?  Please explain. 

These questions were chosen for the information they provided in the fewest number of questions.  The thirty participants were self-chosen by following a link provided on various military wife support group websites, including my own. 

 

DISCUSSION

Statistics of the participants are listed:

• 28 of the 30 participants were significant others of soldiers.  (93%)
• 11 of the 30 participants married the ‘correct’ birth order, or the same or corresponding birth order as themselves.  (37%)
• 18 of 30 soldiers were first-borns (or fifth-born equivalent). (60%)
• 4 of 30 soldiers were second-borns. (13%)
• 5 of 30 soldiers were third-borns. (17%)
• 3 of 30 soldiers were fourth-borns. (10%)
• 19 of 30 spouses were first-borns (or fifth-born equivalent). (63%)
• 7 of 30 spouses were second-borns. (23%)
• 4 of 30 spouses were third-borns. (13%)
• 0 of 30 spouses were fourth-borns. (0%)

 

Comments for the question ‘Do you feel birth order affects your personality or how you behave?  Please explain.’included (answers have been edited for spelling):

• Yes, since I'm very protective of my brother I tend to be the same with everyone in my life. (1 of 2)
• I think that it depends on how you were treated growing up. I was the baby and was used to getting my way. It has affected my grown up life. I try not to treat my children differently from one another. If I don't let my oldest do something I won't let my youngest. (2 of 2)
• Not really..I have taken Psychology and my birth order didn't fit me. I am the over-achiever (the first born is usually the over-achiever). (3 of 5)
• I think that birth order has affected my personality because being the middle child, I was forced to learn and do everything on my own. My parents were to preoccupied taking care of my younger siblings to really focus on me. Also, I was in the middle, so I never had another sibling to be my "friend" (3 of 8)
• I feel that it can. Since we are all affected and molded by our families and our experiences, I believe that birth order can certainly have an influence on who we become. I appreciate your efforts in doing this study. I'm sure all of your data is extremely interesting. ~Jaime~ US Navy wife (2 of 3)
• To a point. It makes me feel older than my peers at times, and has always made me feel more mature and responsible. I was the designated baby-sitter, so in that way was respected and trusted by adults. (1 of 3)
• Yes because of our birth order we feel responsible for everything and act as care givers. (1 of 2)
• Some, I am more of a leader because of it. (1 of 3)
• I do believe that it does have some effect on how you behave. You have different responsibilities depending on your rank in your family. (1 of 2)
• Yes, the whole world revolves around my little brother. bottom line. (2 of 3)

• No I really don't....what has affected me is that my husband has been deployed for 2 years just 4 days ago. (1 of 9)

• Not sure, but it is a cool theory.  (1 of 4)
• no, but I’ve never really thought about it (1:3 or 3:5, depending upon family)
• Yes I do in the sense that a younger sibling learns the behavior of the older one, in addition to I think that they also look up to the older siblings. It can go both ways though, you can either be nothing like your older siblings or want to be just like them growing up with them. (5 of 5)
• Yes I do believe that birth order affects how you behave but does not affect your personality. I believe personality is just who you are regardless of what order you were born in. Although I do believe that they way you behave is something that is learned and taught. If you are a younger sibling you learn from their experiences and behave differently, rather than an older sibling is taught by behaving a certain way rather than learning from someone else. (2 of 2)
• I think it does. I am the oldest, I get whatever I want, and I am always told that I am the princess. I was the first born & my mom had three miscarriages before me so I was pretty special. Though I am a girl, so my younger brother gets treated differently. He is allowed to do things I was never allowed to do at his age, but they say it is because he is a boy. (1 of 2)
• I do believe that birth order affects you personality. It is a proven fact that it does. (5 of 5)
• Yes, I feel that it has influenced my personality, as there was always someone else before me in so many things in my life. To many of my teachers in life, my brother went before me, and that left expectations that I was supposed to live up to. Sometimes I felt that I had to act contrary to my natural inclination in order to further appear different than him. My sister was so much older than I was, that her presence didn't affect me nearly as much. Being the baby of the family, I was also treated differently by relatives and I believe that this helped to shape who I am today. (3 of 3)

CONCLUSIONS

Some people fit exactly with the Birth Order Theory, and others don’t.  It must be taken into context with the rest of a persons’ life story.  In the case of this study, every person has been influenced by the military in some way.  Having a spouse deployed, or even ‘just’ gone once a month and two weeks a year, with the added stress of a possible deployment, changes a person’s perspective and behavior, if not personality. 

 

FURTHER EXAMINATION

The military changes a person’s view of the world, as well as their view of themselves.  This does not just occur for the soldier involved in the military, but for their spouse, children, relatives, and friends as well.  Knowing and understanding their life story is a starting place for understanding the person.  Further examination of soldiers and their families may include:

• Adaptations after a deployment
• Which birth orders tend to adapt best to deployment and reintegration
• How typical birth order traits change after a person joins the military
• Which traits related to birth order best fit the military lifestyle