Relationships of Birth Order, Parent-Child Relationship, Personality, and Academic Performance

This study investigated the relationships between birth order, personality, academic performance, and parent-child relationship amongst 120 college students from the klang valley. the sample constituted of 30 firstborns, 30 middleborns, 30 lastborns, and 30 only children with a mean age of 20.0 years (sd= 1.85). instruments used in this study were ten item personality inventory (tipi) and parent-child relationship survey (pcrs). results indicated that participants of different birth orders did not differ significantly in terms of their personality, academic performance and parent-child relationship. furthermore, this study also found no relationship between parent-child relationship and academic performance. however, extraversion was found to be correlated positively with academic performance. besides, this study also indicated that parent-child relationship did correlate with children’s openness to experience, emotional stability, and conscientiousness. this implies the importance of a match between one’s personality trait and field of study, as well as the importance of good parenting practices