Role of birth order and gender in the coping responses in early adulthood

Abstract

Current research intended to find out the role of birth order and gender on coping responses in early adulthood. Results of this nature of researches will provide helpful guidelines to improve upon the coping responses of people in general. Since lot of research has been undertaken in the theories of birth order, but it has not shown much linkage to the responses of coping in early adulthood, especially in case of people living in Pakistan. For the present research, it was hypothesized that there would be a significant difference between components of coping responses of first, last and only born adults. There would be a significant difference between coping responses of males and females. There would be an interaction effect in coping among birth orders and gender. Purposive sampling was used. Data was collected from different universities of Karachi city (names mentioned in the method section). A total of 150 participants were selected for the study, out of which 75 were males and 75 females, categorizing equally for each birth order (50 for each birth order). First a consent form was signed by the participants, then, a demographic form was administered to record the basic information like age, gender, birth order etc. Coping Responses Inventory-Adult (CRI-A) by Moos (1993) was administered to find out the coping responses. Results from one-way ANOVA showed no significant difference in components of coping responses of first, last and only born adults, thus not verifying the hypotheses of difference of coping among the birth orders. However, t-test showed substantial difference in Emotional Discharge (Behavioral Method and Avoidance Focus of Coping) between males and females at p < 0.042, thus partially verifying the hypotheses of coping differences between gender. When analyzed together, through two-way ANOVA, the effects of birth order and gender on coping responses simultaneously, the Interaction factor in Seeking Alternative Rewards (Behavioral Method and Avoidance Focus of Coping) and Gender factor in Emotional Discharge (Behavioral Method and Avoidance Focus of Coping) were found significant at p < 0.019 and p < 0.041 respectively, thus, partially verifying the hypotheses of interaction effect in coping among birth orders and gender. It is recommended that future research should be conducted on this topic with the guidelines mentioned in the conclusion and recommendation section.