Another view in which this paper will explore will be the differential treatment of siblings when one of the siblings has a special need. This view is important to consider because it appears that there is a significant amount of pressure for siblings to love the very person that they are competing against for parental affection. .
Literature Review:.
The Journal of Family Relations reported an experiment in which they explored mothers" and fathers" differential treatment (PDT) of their adolescent offspring in five areas: privileges, chores, affection, discipline, and temporal involvement. They then observed how siblings" personal qualities were associated with PDT. Participants included 188 families with first and second born adolescents. The equal treatment of the siblings was the normative parental style except for the areas of privileges and discipline. Where equal treatment was the norm, a significant percentage of parents reported differential treatment. Sex was associated with parents" differential temporal involvement. Sex-typed personal qualities were related to parents" differential discipline. Both sex and sex-typed personal characteristics were associated with age and birth order. Furthermore, sex-typed personal qualities were related to the parents" differential discipline (Tucker, 1).
The research done by the Journal of Family Relations concluded that over half of mothers and fathers distributed more privileges to firstborns. Mothers gave firstborns relatively more privileges when they had less active secondborns and fathers allocated more privileges to firstborns when secondborns were more expressive. In about one third of the families, either one or both parents favored the secondborn sibling. "Mothers were more affectionate toward secondborn daughters and were more affectionate toward less instrumental and less emotional secondborns" (Tucker, 2). The journal also reported that mothers discipline firstborns relatively more often when the child was younger and more emotional, and they disciplined secondborns more when the child was more active.
