Scientist Have Proven That Parents Favor Their First Born Child Over Their Siblings.
By
Michael Avery in
Life Style
On 23rd November 2017
Whether they want to admit or not all parents have a child they consider their favorite. When confronted with this claim, they will almost always deny it by saying they love you all equally.
Older children always think that their parents favor the younger children while younger kids think they will never be loved as much as their older sibling.
To find out once and for all who is more favored, scientist conducted a very in-depth study on the matter. Will their findings end the debate? Keep reading to find out.
For the study, the researchers gathered 384 siblings with less than 4 years between them in age. They then proceeded to ask them a variety of questions to find out which sibling was treated better by their parents.
For one question, the siblings were asked to explain how they felt they were treated by their parents. They were asked to explain if they felt like one was treated differently than the other. If they were they were asked if it had an effect on their confidence.
The researchers polled not only the siblings, they also ask the parents questions. The results of their study revealed that an amazing 70% of dads and 74% of moms admitted to having a favorite child.
There was, however, an unexpected plot twist when it came to the kid's results.
The researchers found that the younger siblings polled felt that their parents showed more favoritism to the oldest sibling. These feelings often lowered their self-esteem because they felt they could not compare to their older sibling in their parent's eyes.
The older siblings were found to have a much better-developed sense of self-confidence because they were the first to reach important life stages which made them feel superior to their younger siblings.
In the study, the eldest children admitted that they felt like their parents had a preference towards them because they were the first to succeed in life.
Katherine Conger, of the University of California, was shocked by the results. As the head of the study, she said: “I was a little surprised. Our hypothesis was that older, earlier-born children would be more affected by perceptions of differential treatment due to their status as the older child in the family.”
Of course, these are only the results of a single study and may not be true for every family. Sometimes one child has a better relationship with their parents later in life and becomes the favorite as an adult.
The oldest child isn't always the favorite but it can't be denied that in the beginning they definitely hold more value in the hearts of their parents because they experience things in life first.
The first child tends to have it easier because their parents have already made the mistakes that they won't make again with the younger children. They take the lessons they learned from raising the eldest and apply it to all the rest. Basically, the first child is the experiment while subsequent children are the finished product.
When it's all said and done, parents are likely to favor one child over the other and unless you're some kind of child prodigy there isn't anything you can do to change the way your parents feel. They still love you... even if it's not as much as they do your sibling.
