INTRODUCTION
The following is the report for the Investigation Task regarding the influence of birth order on self-esteem.
Self-esteem is usually broadly defined as a person’s overall evaluation of, or attitude towards oneself, and can be used to describe one’s value of self-worth. For example, being an excellent runner would make one feel athletically competitive, providing a more positive self-esteem, while acquiring low grades would have a negative impact on one’s self-worth. Self-esteem has been widely known to play a major role in the maintenance of healthy development, and involves various beliefs about the self, such as the appraisal of one 's own appearance, beliefs, actions, emotions, and behaviours. People with high self-esteem are satisfied with the type of person they are; they acknowledge their strong points, and weaknesses (often hoping to overcome them), and generally feel quite positive about the characteristics and competencies thy display. People with low self-esteem view the self in a less-favourable light, often choosing to dwell on perceived inadequacies rather than on and strengths they may happen to display. Contemporary belief is that self-esteem is routed in early childhood with a foundation of
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They did not find any significant differences in self-concept or loneliness, or in self-rated number of quality friendships. However, in terms of social preference (getting ‘liked most’ and not ‘liked least’ nominations from classmates), second-borns were the most liked, and only children the least liked. Only children were also nominated most often as aggressive, victimized and withdrawn. Findings also shown that second-born children had obtained the highest global self-esteem scores, followed by only children, and lastly, first-born