Elder siblings, rejoice. You may have had it tough as the prototype child who endured a stricter upbringing than the squawking interloper who stole all the attention - and your toys - but science decrees you ARE cleverer than your little brother/sister.

As well as confirming that elder siblings are smarter in a 20,000-strong study, boffins at Germany's Leipzig University have good news for awkward middle kids: the IQ of each successive sibling drops by around 1.5 points per child.

So while the middle children may not be quite as intelligent as the sensible first-born, they can console themselves that they're more on the ball than the baby of the family.

Lead researcher Julia Rohrer explains to Healthday: "Teaching other people has high cognitive demands - the children need to recall their own knowledge, structure it and think of a good way to explain it - which could be a boost to intelligence for some firstborns."

Younger children may also be disadvantaged by having to share their parents' attention, she said.

"A first-born will enjoy full parental resources, including attention, the second-born will have to share with the firstborn from the start, and it gets even worse for the third-born."

While the study backs up existing research that suggests older siblings are more intelligent, its findings contradict widely held beliefs that personality traits are also linked to birth order.

Characteristics such as extroversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience have been linked to elder, middle and younger siblings, but the Leipzig report found no evidence to back up the cliches.

via GIPHY

Images: Rex Features