PARENTAL FAVORITISM AMONG SIBLINGS

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement
in Personal Development

presented to

of the Senior High School Department

by
Chesca Mae Macasio
Grade 11 STEM A

March 2019
I. Introduction

“Our longest-lasting relationships can often be the most complex.” – Emma

Cook.

“Siblings are not just second editions in relation to the parents, but have a

profound importance in their own right. Relationships with siblings are ineradicably fixed

in our psyches.” (Lewis & Sharp, 2019). They might cause headaches most of the time,

but there is no other relationship in this world than what you and your siblings have. It is

the feeling of wanting to see the other suffering in each other’s hand but the urge of

taking avenge when you see someone else causing them pain. Siblings shape your

history and character to the full extent.

Minor conflicts between siblings are common. Like fighting over television

channels, last piece of hot cakes, or clothes your parents bought on a department store

sale. However, conflicts between brothers and sisters, sisters and sisters or brothers and

brothers can get worse as they grow up and became exposed to the outside world. From

the petty things that sibling fight over until they became insecure about each other’s

strength and weaknesses. As they turn into young adults their mind becomes open and

notice even the smallest of things, like having both parents favoring on the younger one

or the other way around. This tends to destroy everything they had way back diaper

days.
II. Related Literatures

Here are some of the abstract of researches with relation on the conflicts between

siblings caused by parental favoritism.

A. Birth Order, Sex of Child, and Perceptions of Parental Favoritism

Many studies have examined factors that influence discriminative

parental solicitude. Sex, birth order, and age of the mother are a few factors

demonstrated to influence levels of parental investment (especially as measured by

offspring self-report). One indicator of a high level of parental investment is being a

parental favorite. Using self-reports from a sample of several hundred young adults,

we secured support for two hypotheses related to the influence of birth order and sex

on parental favoritism. Fathers are not perceived as having a favorite child more

often than are mothers, but are more likely to favor female children than are mothers.

Mothers are perceived to be more likely to favor female children in blended sibling

relationships. Both mothers and fathers are perceived as favoring genetically-related

children. The results also suggest that the birth order of the parental favorite varies

with the birth order of the participant. Firstborns and lastborn report a pattern of

favoritism that suggests parents favor firstborn and lastborn children. The discussion

addresses limitations of the methodology and presents directions for future research.

B. Do Mothers Spend More on Daughters While Fathers Spend More on Sons?

The overwhelming majority of parent state that they treat their children

equally, but parents rarely track their spending on each child. We investigate in four

studies whether mothers and fathers favor specific children depending on the
 biological sex of the child. Evidence from the field, laboratory, and community (online

panel) showed that parents exhibit systematic biases when forced to choose

between spending on sons and daughters. Mothers consistently favored daughters,

whereas fathers consistently favored sons. For example, parents were more likely to

choose a real prize and give a real U.S. Treasury bond to the child of the same sex

as themselves. These parenting biases were found in two different cultures and

appear to be driven by parents identifying more strongly with children of the same

sex as the parent.

C. The Association between Unequal Parental Treatment and the Sibling

Relationship in Finland: The Difference between Full and Half-Siblings

Studies have shown that unequal parental treatment is associated with

relationship quality between siblings. However, it is unclear how it affects the

relationship between full and half-siblings. Using data from the Generational

Transmissions in Finland project (n = 1,537 younger adults), we study whether those

who have half-siblings perceive more unequal parental treatment than those who

have full siblings only. In addition, we study how unequal parental treatment is

associated with sibling relationship between full, maternal, and paternal half-siblings.

First, we found that individuals who have maternal and/or paternal half-siblings are

more likely to have encountered unequal maternal treatment than individuals who

have full siblings only. Second, we found that unequal parental treatment impairs full

as well as maternal and paternal half-sibling relations in adulthood. Third, unequal

parental treatment mediates the effect of genetic relatedness on sibling relations in

the case of maternal half-siblings, but not in the case of paternal half-siblings. After

controlling for unequal parental treatment, the quality of maternal half-sibling

relationships did not differ from that of full siblings, whereas the quality of paternal
 half-sibling relationships still did. Fourth, the qualitative comments (n = 206) from the

same population reveal that unequal parental treatment presents itself several ways,

such as differential financial, emotional, or practical support.

D. Parental Differential Treatment for Adult Children: Interactions, Implications

and Interventions

Parental Differential Treatment (PDT) is the conscious or unconscious

action of providing one sibling more favorable treatment over another. PDT has

consequences for children’s lives. Several consequences have been identified for

children who experience PDT; However, there is a dearth of literature exploring the

effect of PDT on adult life. This qualitative, phenomenological study is an effort to

better understand the lived experiences of adult children with PDT, and its effect on

their current adult life. Four people, between the ages of 25-55 who have

experienced, or continue to experience PDT participated in this study. The

“Modification of the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen” method of analysis was utilized,

extracting common themes. Findings indicated that there were many similarities

between the participants and the literature review. It also uncovered that there is an

essence, essentially various principles to understanding the lived experience of adult

children with PDT. Essentially, PDT is either practiced or perceived due to specifics

such as: personality, responsibility and expectations. Findings from this study cannot

be generalized, as there were only four participants and they were not randomly

chosen. The implications of this research in relation to the experiences of PDT are

discussed. Directions for future research are also addressed.

When asking your parents about who’s their most favorite, they tend to answer no

one because there are times that parents favor a certain child among others without them

realizing it. It is commonly called as Parental Differential Treatment (PDT), which refers to

the conscious or unconscious action of giving his/her child different level of attention.

One of the study showed that sex and birth order of the child and mother’s age

upon perception generally affects their treatment on their child. When both parents are

compared regarding their treatment on child, mothers are proved to have a certain favorite

than fathers normally do. Fathers favor their daughters more but in blended sibling

relationship, mothers also favor their daughter. However, regardless the gender, both

parents tend to give more favor to firstborns and last-borns than their other children.

Nevertheless, some researches shows that parents often give favors to child with

same sex as them. In other words, mothers favor their daughter more while fathers favor

their son.

When this issue among sibling is shown in a different view, say, having half-sibling

and full-sibling mixed in one roof, which is very common in our society today, half-siblings

encounters unequal maternal treatment than full-siblings do.

In general, there are lots of factor that may affect the parental favoritism among

siblings. This issue is practiced mainly because of personality, responsibility and

expectations.
IV. BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Lewin, V. and Sharp, B. (2009). Siblings in Development: A Psychoanalytic View.

London: Karnac.

 Salmon, C., et. al. (2011). Birth Order, Sex of Child and Persceptions of Parental

Favoritism. Personality and Individual Differences, p. 2.

 Nokiforidis, L., et. al. (2017). Do Mothers Spend More on Daughters while Fathers

Spend More on Sons? Journal of Consumer Psychology, p. 149.

 Danielshacka, M. and Tanskanen, A. (2015). The Association between Unequal

Parental Treatment and the Sibling Relationship in Finland: The Difference

between Full and Half-siblings. Evolutionary Psychology – ISSN 1474-7049 –

Volume 13(2) p. 492.

 Beres, C.D. and Saskatchewan, R. (2014). Parental Differential Treatment for Adult

Children: Interactions, Implications and Interventions. Nowhere: Nonesuch

Publishing