Reciprocal links among differential parenting, perceived partiality, and self-worth: a three-wave longitudinal study.

This study examined reciprocal links between parental differential treatment, siblings’ per-ception of partiality, and self-worth with 3 waves of data from 384 adolescent sibling dyads.Results suggest that birth-order status was signicantly associated with self-worth andperception of maternal and paternal differential treatment. There was a consistent across-timeeffect of self-worth on perception of parental partiality for later born siblings, but not earlierborn siblings, and a consistent effect of differential treatment on perception of partiality forearlier born but not later born siblings. The results contribute new insight into the associationsbetween perception of differential parenting and adolescents’ adjustment and the role of birthorder.Keywords: parental differential treatment, siblings’ perception of partiality, self-worth,siblings’ birth order, adolescence