Parents try to be fair, but children pick up on subtle
differences in the way they are treated. In a study appearing in
the journal Child Development, researchers led by Jennifer
Jenkins, a professor of human development and applied psychology
at the University of Toronto, report on the wide-ranging effects
that playing favorites, known as differential parenting, can
have on not just individual siblings but also on the behavior
and mental health of all family members. When parents provide
more positive feedback and encouragement to one child while
sending primarily negative comments to another, it’s no surprise
that the negatively targeted child may develop more behavior
problems and have a more difficult relationship with his
parents. But Jenkins and her colleagues were interested in
exploring how differential parenting affects all siblings in a
family and in understanding some of the factors that might make
such differential treatment more likely. (MORE: Playing
Favorites) The researchers focused on nearly