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Science 14 December 1973:
Vol. 182. no. 4117, pp. 1096 - 1101
DOI: 10.1126/science.182.4117.1096
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Articles

Birth Order, Family Size, and Intelligence

A study of a total population of 19-year-old men born in the Netherlands is presented

Lillian Belmont 1 and Francis A. Marolla 1

1 State Department of Mental Hygiene, Epidemiology Research Unit I of the Division of Epidemiology, Columbia University School of Public Health, 600 West 168 Street, New York 10032

The relation of birth order and family size to intellectual performance, as measured by the Raven Progressive Matrices, was examined among nearly all of 400,000 19-year-old males born in the Netherlands in 1944 through 1947. It was found that birth order and family size had independent effects on intellectual performance. Effects of family size were not present in all social classes, but effects of birth order were consistent across social class.


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