Birth Order, Family Constellation, and College Music Performers
Trimble, Tod M.
This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/70874
Description
Title
Birth Order, Family Constellation, and College Music Performers
Author(s)
Trimble, Tod M.
Issue Date
1988
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Colwell, Richard J.
Department of Study
Music
Discipline
Music
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
D.M.A.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Music
Education, Music
Psychology, Personality
Abstract
Musicians comprising the top choir and orchestra at five selected schools of music, the top choir from a sixth selected school, and the top orchestra from a seventh selected school served as subjects. Forms were completed during a regularly-scheduled rehearsal on which each self-reported his or her own family constellations (birth order, spacing, and sex of siblings) and his or her parents' family constellations where known. 492 subjects provided data on 1011 siblings, for 1503 offspring in the subjects' immediate families. The subjects provided data for the families of 924 parents, whose families contained 3067 offspring. For the total sample and for choirs and for orchestras chi-square and z analyses were conducted for positions as divided into first-, middle-, and last-borns. Tests were conducted examining the sex of all siblings and of closest siblings and of siblings whose births occurred within specified numbers of years of the subjects' births.
Results. Family constellation effects are present in both the ensemblists' families and families of their mothers. Though college students, first-borns are not over-represented. Where significant, middle-borns are under-represented and last-borns are over-represented. First-born mothers are over-represented. These tendencies are not present among orchestra members or men when taken as groups. Choir women tend to have sisters one to two years older and brothers five to six years older. Orchestra women tend to have older brothers and younger sisters.
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
