Many parents have a favorite child, whether they admit it or not. Even children can notice it but most of the time parents will deny it.
As a firstborn, it is more than likely that you believe that your parents prefer your younger brother or sister. During this time, if you are the youngest, you will probably think that you will never be quite equal to your big brother or big sister. But researchers say it's the first-born who has the most preferential treatment!
To solve the problem, a complex study produced evidence to settle the debate once and for all.
Place to science
A study in California, interviewed 384 siblings, with at most a four-year age gap between them. The researchers asked these participants a series of questions to determine which siblings were receiving preferential treatment.
In one question, they asked the siblings to explain how they thought their parents treated them and whether they felt different treatment. If this was the case, participants were asked whether this affected their confidence in themselves or not.
With the teenage brothers and sisters, the researchers also interviewed their parents. Their survey revealed that 74% of mothers and 70% of dads confessed to having a favorite child!
Amazing results
However, when we looked at the children's results, the researchers discovered something unexpected:
The results of the study revealed that younger siblings often felt that their parents had a preference for older adults, which undermined their self-esteem because they felt unable to compete.
Meanwhile, the older brother had a heightened sense of confidence because he was the first to reach the life stages of life, such as obtaining a graduate degree, and therefore felt superior to his brother. or his sister.
During the study, older siblings recognized that they felt that their parents preferred them, which was based on the fact that they were the first to succeed in life.
These results surprised Katherine Conger, a member of the University of California research team, who led the study.
"I was a little surprised, our assumption was that older children would be more affected by perceptions of differential treatment because of their status as an older child in the family," she said.
A study that paves the way for further studies
These results are those of a single study, and this is not necessarily the case in every household. Sometimes a brother has a better relationship with his parents as an adult and ends up becoming the favorite later in life.
The older brother is not always the family's favorite, but we can not deny that, at least in the beginning, they have a stronger relationship with their parents because they are the first to experience things in their family. life. But again, mistakes can be made with the elder's education. So parents can apply what they have learned from their firstborn to their next children, which will be more beneficial to them.
Finally, luckily, not all parents make distinctions between their children, but sometimes some people may prefer one child over another without having an impact on the rest of the siblings.