Do you think you are the boy or the girl in your parents’ eyes? Now you will have stronger arguments to defend it at family meals. Research by sociologists at the University of California maintains that parents with multiple children have a favorite among them.
The authors of the work (published in the Journal of Family Psychology) reached this conclusion after studying 384 families (768 parents): 70% of mothers and 74% of fathers admitted that they preferred one of their children .
The parents did not specify which of the offspring was their right eye, but after interviewing the study subjects (both parents and children), the researchers believe that it is the oldest in most cases, which contradicts the cliché that the small takes the greatest pampering and affection.
Sociologists asked adolescent siblings with no more than four years of age difference between them how they seemed to be treated by their parents, and found that youngest and middle-aged siblings felt there was a clear favoritism towards the eldest in the family. In addition, this difference affected their self-esteem.
In most of the 384 families analyzed , the older children perceived that their achievements were more valued by their parents than those of their younger siblings, which could have a simple explanation, according to the researchers: with the first-born, parents and mothers they experience parenthood for the first time, and that makes them more exciting and memorable.
