Do you think the number of children in a family affects the children's personalities and behavioral traits?

I was having a discussion with a co-worker a few weeks ago about how many children we each wanted. We talked a little bit about people we know with 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. children/siblings, how they “turned out”, and why we wouldn’t want a certain number of children ourselves. We both noticed some patterns with the people we knew (which were different people as I’m new to this area) in regards to a certain child (say child #3 of 3) having certain behavioral traits and personality compared to the other two children.

I’m curious to see if other people have noticed other patterns as well and if so, to see if their patterns match the ones we noticed. Also, I’m interested in any research that’s been done as I haven’t had a chance to look into it yet. I’ve read a lot of information on birth order, but not really anything about the number of children on it’s own. Does any of this have any bearing on how many children you would want or specifically not want to have?

I will share what my co-worker and I noticed as part of the discussion after some other’s have had a chance to respond.