A new study, conducted by researchers from the University of Leipzig, Germany, suggests that while the gender of siblings may affect one’s personality during childhood, it has no effect on grown-up personalities.
In their study, the researchers analyzed data from more than 80,000 people living in 9 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico, China, and Indonesia.
Study principal investigator Dr. Julia M. Rohrer says: “The effect of brothers on occupational choice, disappears in more gender-equal families, that is, families in which the parents have almost the same working hours during childhood. Thus, it is plausible to assume that if traditional gender roles in parenting disappeared, the effects of sibling gender may also disappear.”