Are Wednesday's Children Full of Woe? Children's Differences in Personality Are Independent of Day of Birth

Wood, E., Brown, A., Wilding, K., Oxley, F. A. R., Fisher, H. L., Arseneaul, L., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E. and von Stumm, S. (2025) Are Wednesday's Children Full of Woe? Children's Differences in Personality Are Independent of Day of Birth. Journal of Personality. 0022-3506.

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Abstract:

Introduction: Nursery rhymes, which are rich in literary devices, benefit children's language learning. Less is known about the influence that nursery rhymes' messages may have on children's development. We focused on “Monday's Child,” a popular nursery rhyme that alleges children's day of the week of birth forecasts their differences in personality and physical traits. Methods: Data came from E-Risk, a UK population representative, longitudinal cohort study of 2232 same-sex twin children (with 93% retention). We used linear regression models to test whether the day of the week of birth predicted personality and physical traits at ages 5–18 years. Results: Being born on Monday through Saturday did not predict children's personality and physical traits as implied by the “Monday's Child” rhyme. Being born on Sunday was also not associated with children's traits across measures. These results were unchanged after covariate adjustment (i.e., children's sex, birthweight, and socioeconomic status). Conclusion: We showed that children's differences in personality and physical traits are independent of their day of the week of birth. These findings suggest that nursery rhymes' messages are unlikely to influence children's development, at least those conveyed by “Monday's Child”.

Additional Information:

We are grateful to the twins in the E-Risk Study as well as study mothers and fathers, and the twins' teachers for their participation. Our thanks to the E-Risk team for their dedication, hard work, and insights. The Joint South London and Maudsley and the Institute of Psychiatry Research Ethics Committee approved each phase of the E-Risk study (NRES 1997/122). Parents gave informed consent and twins gave assent before age 18 and consent at age 18. © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Uncontrolled Keywords:

child development, individual differences, longitudinal research

Creators:

Wood, E., Brown, A., Wilding, K., Oxley, F. A. R., Fisher, H. L., Arseneaul, L., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E. and von Stumm, S.

Faculties, Divisions and Institutes:

Faculties > Faculty of Health & Society > Psychology

Date:

11 July 2025

Date Type:

Publication

Journal or Publication Title:

Journal of Personality

Number of Pages:

Language:

English

ISSN:

0022-3506

Status:

Published / Disseminated

Refereed:

Yes