Social Class, Birth Order, and Newborn Experience.

KILBRIDE, HOWARD W.; JOHNSON, DAVD L.; and STREISSGUTH, ANN PYTKnowICZ. Social Class, Birth Order, and Newborn Experience. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 1686-1688. Early home experiences of a group of 32 2-week old infants, equally divided according to social class, birth order, and sex, were studied.. Naturalistic observations were taken on 2 consecutive days for a total of 6 hours. Compared with later-borns, firstborns received significantly more caretaker interaction on all variables studied. Compared with lower-SES infants, those from higher-SES homes received significantly more direct verbal interaction although the 2 groups did not differ on total periods of other types of caretaking interaction. The findings are consistent with birth order and social class differences reported in home environments of older infants and children.