London - If you think your child is over-egging it when they complain about a little brother or sister winding them up, perhaps you should show a little more understanding.
Scientists have found that older children suffer higher blood pressure when they have a younger sibling.
Having a younger brother can raise blood pressure by three to 5.9 percent, while a younger sister can result in a blood pressure increase of 3.8 percent.
US researchers studied blood pressure rates among 374 adults from nearly 200 families living in Amazonian villages in Bolivia.
They found that “sibling configuration, including birth order, the number, age, and sex of siblings is associated with parental resource allocation between children and is thus associated with a person’s well-being. In a large family, the number of younger brothers may exert an impact on an individual’s blood pressure”.
Study co-author Wu Zeng, from Brandeis University, Massachusetts, said: “Children see the arrival of a younger sibling as stressful because the newborn competes for parental attention. In addition, more younger siblings might increase the workload of older sisters.”
But the older a person gets, the effect on their blood pressure from younger siblings decreases, said the study published in Economics and Human Biology. - Daily Mail