Abstract
This paper reviews the individual psychology of Alfred Adler with a focus on the implications for political science. Adler's emphasis on social characteristics of the family suggests several hypotheses about the influence of siblings on a sense of political efficacy. These hypotheses are tested with the following results. First, the size of the family affects the sense of political efficacy of boys, but not girls. As family size increases, boys' sense of political efficacy decreases. Second, birth order affects the sense of political efficacy. Specifically, youngest children have a higher sense of political efficacy than middle children, who have a higher sense of political efficacy than oldest children. Finally, the sense of political efficacy for sibling dyads conforms to the predictions based on birth order effects. Siblings of the same sex have lower agreement scores than siblings of the opposite sex.
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Broh, C.A. Adler on the influence of siblings in political socialization. Polit Behav 1, 175–200 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00989993
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00989993