As my parents' first-born, I am supposed to make more money than my younger sibling, and be loads smarter.

So it's only a theory. But a growing string of studies back up the idea that birth order influences success (in the general sense of the word). Some famous first-borns: Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Bill Cosby, Jessica Simpson.

Psychologists have proposed that older children are given more responsiblities, building brain power. And that first-borns push themselves to live up to higher expectations by parents. Now comes new research from Brigham Young University that expounds on the idea that older children thrive from greater amounts of undivided attention.

The study, published in the Journal of Human Resources, shows that first-borns enjoy 3,000 more hours of quality time with parents between ages 4 to 13 than
the next-oldest sibling during the same age range.

Parents understandably have more time and energy when they only have one child. As the family grows and gets older, what free time there is goes more toward activities such as watching TV, the study showed.

You might think that in this equation, younger children in larger families get shorter shrift. But the study, which used data from a national time management survey from the U.S. Department of Labor, indicates that parents of big families devote more time to their kids. The youngest of four siblings gets as much quality time as the younger of two kids.

For tips on how to make sure all kids get equal attention, check out the "Guide to Siblings" in Parenting magazine: http://www.parenting.com/article/Toddler/Behavior/Siblings-21334851

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