Synopses & Reviews
Middle children are underachievers, overshadowed and overlooked, right? Wrong.
Combining research in evolutionary biology, psychology and sociology with real-life stories, psychologist Catherine Salmon, Ph.D., and journalist Katrin Schumann reveal what it really means to grow up in between, including how:
• Middles receive less financial and emotional support from their parents, but become remarkably successful and innovative adults
• Middles can be stubbornly independent as teens, but are extraordinary team players later in life
• Middles are often seen as outcasts, but are actually far less likely to get divorced or be in therapy than their siblings.
With surprising insights into how our birth order affects us, as well as constructive advice on how to maximize advantages and overcome drawbacks, The Secret Power of Middle Children shows middleborns at any age (and their parents) how to use what seems to be a disadvantage as a strategy for personal and professional success.
Review
“Powerful advice … anchored in hard science and illuminated by vivid case examples.” -David M. Buss, author of Evolutionary Psychology
Review
“Entertaining and provocative.” -Frank J. Sulloway, author of Born to Rebel
Synopsis
This myth-busting book shows how "forgotten" middle children can-and do-rule the world. In this counterintuitive book, psychologist Catherine Salmon and journalist Katrin Schumann combine science, history, and real-life stories to reveal for the first time that our perception of middle children is dead wrong.
Using unpublished and little-known research from evolutionary psychology, sociology, and communications, The Secret Power of Middle Children illustrates how adaptive strategies middleborns develop during childhood translate into stronger friendships, lasting marriages, successful careers, and effective parenting.
Over seventy million adult Americans are middle children, and forty percent of young American families have middle children. With constructive advice on how to maximize the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of being a middle child, Salmon and Schumann help middle children at any age (and their parents) use birth order as a strategy for success.
About the Author
Catherine Salmon, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Redlands in California. Her award-winning research has been featured in
Time, The Washington Post, The National Post, and
The Philadelphia Inquirer and in documentaries for the Science Channel and Oxygen.
Katrin Schumann is an author, freelance editor and teacher. Co-author of Mothers Need Time-Outs, Too, she appeared on NBC's "Today" as well as in Women's Day and The Daily Telegraph.
Visit thesecretpowerofmiddlechildren.com