Rodgers J L, Cleveland H H, van den Oord E, Rowe D C
Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma, Norman 73019, USA.
Am Psychol. 2000 Jun;55(6):599-612. doi: 10.1037//0003-066x.55.6.599.
Hundreds of research articles have addressed the relationship between birth order and intelligence. Virtually all have used cross-sectional data, which are fundamentally flawed in the assessment of within-family (including birth order) processes. Although within-family models have been based on patterns in cross-sectional data, a number of equally plausible between-family explanations also exist. Within-family (preferably intact-family) data are prerequisite for separating within- and between-family causal processes. This observation reframes an old issue in a way that can be easily addressed by studying graphical patterns. Sibling data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are evaluated, and the results are compared with those from other studies using within-family data. It appears that although low-IQ parents have been making large families, large families do not make low-IQ children in modern U.S. society. The apparent relation between birth order and intelligence has been a methodological illusion.
数百篇研究文章探讨了出生顺序与智力之间的关系。几乎所有这些研究都使用了横断面数据，而横断面数据在评估家庭内部（包括出生顺序）过程时存在根本性缺陷。尽管家庭内部模型是基于横断面数据中的模式建立的，但也存在一些同样合理的家庭间解释。家庭内部（最好是完整家庭）数据是区分家庭内部和家庭间因果过程的先决条件。这一观察结果以一种可以通过研究图形模式轻松解决的方式重新构建了一个老问题。对来自全国青年纵向调查的兄弟姐妹数据进行了评估，并将结果与其他使用家庭内部数据的研究结果进行了比较。看起来，尽管智商较低的父母生育了大家庭，但在现代美国社会中，大家庭并不会导致孩子智商低。出生顺序与智力之间明显的关系一直是一种方法上的错觉。
