Exploring psycho-social effects of parental differential treatment on the middle child: An interpretative phenomenological analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71085/joclsi.05.01.87Keywords:
Psycho-Social Effects, Parental Differential Treatment, Middle Child, Interpretative Phenomenological AnalysisAbstract
The current qualitative study designed to discover the psycho-social influence of parental differential treatment on middle-born children within the native Pakistani social and cultural context. Using an interpretative phenomenological research design, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with young adults (middle born) to understand their lived experiences relate to perceived parental favoritism and neglecting behavior during their childhood and adolescence phases. The data were analyzed with the help of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) which revealed various themes, including supremacy in the family, parents’ favoritism, devaluing opinion and questioning maturity, sibling rivalry and sarcastic attitude of sibling, parents’ expectations and academic pressure, perceived support (social, emotional, financial and moral), personality traits/types, psychological effects, desire not to be middle born, and acceptance and coping strategies. The study focuses on the long-term psychological and interpersonal costs of parental differential treatment on middle-born children and highlights the necessity for parental consciousness, culture-based family psychoanalysis, and precautionary interferences to encourage emotional fairness within family members.
Downloads
References
Adler, A. (1931). The meaning of life. The Lancet.
Albert, D., & Steinberg, L. (2011). Judgment and decision making in adolescence. Journal of research on Adolescence, 21(1), 211-224.
Aoki, S. (2019). The role of parental expectations and self-beliefs on academic stress and depression among Asian American undergraduates. Arizona State University.
Atzaba‐Poria, N., & Pike, A. (2008). Correlates of parental differential treatment: Parental and contextual factors during middle childhood. Child development, 79(1), 217-232.
Bagwell, C. L., Newcomb, A. F., & Bukowski, W. M. (1998). Preadolescent friendship and peer rejection as predictors of adult adjustment. Child development, 69(1), 140-153.
Boyle, M. H., Jenkins, J. M., Georgiades, K., Cairney, J., Duku, E., & Racine, Y. (2004). Differential-maternal parenting behavior: Estimating within- and between-family effects on children. Child. Dev. 75, 1457–1476. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00751.x
Brody, G. H. (1998). Sibling relationship quality: Its causes and consequences. Annual review of psychology, 49(1), 1-24.
Chan, S. M., Bowes, J., & Wyver, S. (2009). Chinese parenting in Hong Kong: links among goals, beliefs and styles. Early Child Development and Care, 179(7), 849–862. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430701536525
Creswell, J. W., Hanson, W. E., Clark Plano, V. L., & Morales, A. (2007). Qualitative research designs: Selection and implementation. The counseling psychologist, 35(2), 236-264.
Dani, J. A., & Harris, R. A. (2005). Nicotine addiction and comorbidity with alcohol z and mental illness. Nat. Neurosci. 8, 1465–1470. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1580
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). The general causality orientations scale: Self-determination in personality. Journal of research in personality, 19(2), 109-134.
Eriksen, I. M. (2021). Class, parenting and academic stress in Norway: Middle-class youth on parental pressure and mental health. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 42(4), 602-614.
Feinberg, M. E., Howe, G. W., Reiss, D., & Hetherington, E. M. (2000). Relationship between perceptual differences of parenting and adolescent antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms. Journal of Family Psychology, 14(4), 531.
Feist, J., Feist, G.J., & Roberts, T.A. (2021). Adler: Individual psychology. In G.J. Feist, R. Reiter-Palmon, & J.C. Kaufman (Eds.), Theories of personality (pp. 75-85). Boston: McGraw- Hill.
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human relations, 7(2), 117-140.
Fletcher, J. M. (2011). Long‐term effects of health investments and parental favoritism: the case of breastfeeding. Health Economics, 20(11), 1349-1361.
Gerona, M. C. (2023). A Comparative Study of Birth Order and Their Feelings of Inferiority and Superiority.
Guo, X., Lv, B., Zhou, H., Liu, C., Liu, J., Jiang, K., & Luo, L. (2018). Gender differences in how family income and parental education relate to reading achievement in China: The mediating role of parental expectation and parental involvement. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 783.
Hangen, E. J., Elliot, A. J., & Jamieson, J. P. (2019). Stress reappraisal during a mathematics competition: Testing effects on cardiovascular approach-oriented states and exploring the moderating role of gender. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 32(1), 95-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2018.1530049
Hjorth, C. F., Bilgrav, L., Frandsen, L. S., Overgaard, C., Torp-Pedersen, C., Nielsen, B., & Bøggild, H. (2016). Mental health and school dropout across educational levels and genders: a 4.8-year follow-up study. BMC public health, 16(1), 976.
Holden, R. J., & Karsh, B. T. (2010). The technology acceptance model: its past and its future in health care. Journal of biomedical informatics, 43(1), 159-172.
Iftikhar, K., & Sajjad, S. (2023). Perceived parental differential treatment and sibling relationships in adolescents. Canadian Journal of Family and Youth/Le Journal Canadien de Famille et de la Jeunesse, 15(3), 63-82.
Jensen, A. C., & Whiteman, S. D. (2014). Parents’ differential treatment and adolescents’ delinquent behaviors: Direct and indirect effects of difference-score and perception-based measures. Journal of family psychology, 28(4), 549.
Jensen, A. C., Pond, A. M., & Padilla-Walker, L. M. (2015). Why can’t I be more like my brother? The role and correlates of sibling social comparison orientation. Journal of youth and adolescence, 44(11), 2067-2078.
Kansky, J., Allen, J. P., & Diener, E. (2016). Early adolescent affect predicts later life outcomes. Appl. Psychol. Health. Well. Being. 8, 192–212. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12068
Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P. A., Foster, C. L., Saunders, W. B., Stang, P. E., and Walters, E. E. (1997). Social consequences of psychiatric disorders, II: teenage parenthood. Am. J. Psychiatry 154, 1405–1411.
Kuczynski, L., Navara, G., & Boiger, M. (2011). The social relational perspective on family acculturation. Immigrant children: Change, adaptation, and cultural transformation, 171-192.
Lalayants, M., & Prince, J. D. (2014). Delinquency, depression, and substance use disorder among child welfare-involved adolescent females. Child. Abuse. Negl. 38, 797–807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2013.08.008
Lu, Y., Zhao, H., Zhu, X., & Li, W. (2025). How parental educational anxiety fuels adolescent depression: the mediating chain of moral disengagement and negative coping, and the buffering role of psychological resilience. BMC psychology, 13(1), 1370.
Maccoby, E. E., & Mnookin, R. H. (1992). Dividing the child: Social and legal dilemmas of custody. Harvard University Press.
Major, B., Testa, M., & Bylsma, W. H. (1991). Responses to upward and downward social comparisons: The impact of esteem-relevance and perceived control. In J. Suls & T. A. Wills (Eds.), Social comparison: Contemporary theory and research. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Marano, K. (2017). An analysis of empirical validity of Alfred Adler’s theory of birth order. Aletheia-The Alpha Chi of Undergraduate Scholarship, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.21081/ax0082
McGuire, S., Dunn, J., & Plomin, R. (1995). Maternal differential treatment of siblings and children's behavioral problems: A longitudinal study. Development and Psychopathology, 7(3), 515-528.
Ng, C. S. M. (2007). The Role of Psychological and Environmental Risk Factors in Self-Harm Amongst Adolescents in Hong Kong. Ph. D. dissertation, University of London, London.
Ng, C. S. M., Chiu, M. M., Zhou, Q., & Heyman, G. (2020). The impact of differential parenting: Study protocol on a longitudinal study investigating child and parent factors on children’s psychosocial health in Hong Kong. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 1656.
Olgar, M. A. (2013). Parents and their role in upbringing of children. http:/www.beautifulislam.net/family/upbringing_children.html
Patel, V., Flisher, A. J., Hetrick, S., & McGorry, P. (2007). Mental health of young people: a global public-health challenge. The lancet, 369(9569), 1302-1313.
Pathak, V., Jena, B., & Kalra, S. (2013). Qualitative research. Perspectives in clinical research, 4(3), 192.
Regan, S. (2021). 5 common traits of middle children + how to use them to your advantage. Mind body green. https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/middle-child-syndrome
Reeve, J., Jang, H., Carrell, D., Jeon, S., & Barch, J. (2004). Enhancing students' engagement by increasing teachers' autonomy support. Motivation and emotion, 28(2), 147–169. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:moem.0000032312.95499.6f
Rose, A. J., & Asher, S. R. (2004). Children's strategies and goals in response to help‐giving and help‐seeking tasks within a friendship. Child development, 75(3), 749-763.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American psychologist, 55(1), 68.
Saqib, M., & Rehman, K. U. (2018). Impact of stress on students’ academic performance at secondary school level at District Vehari. International Journal of Learning and Development, 8(1), 84-93.
Selman, R. L., Watts, C. L., & Schultz, L. H. (Eds.). (1997). Fostering friendship: Pair therapy for treatment and prevention. AldineTransaction.
Shanahan, L., McHale, S. M., Crouter, A. C., & Osgood, D. W. (2008). Linkages between parents’ differential treatment, youth depressive symptoms, and sibling relationships. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 480–494. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2008.00495.x.
Shirmohammadi, Z., Saadi, Z. F., & Shoushtri, M. T. (2021). The association between self-compassion and academic well-being with the mediating role of perceived academic stress and academic optimism in female students. International Journal of School Health 8(2), 72-82. https://doi.org/10.30476/intjsh.2021.90784.1136
Sigelman, C. K., & Rider, E. A. (2012). Life-span. Human development, 33-35.
Sulloway, F. J. (1996). Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives. New York: Pantheon.
Sulloway, F. J. (1999). Birth order. Encyclopedia of creativity, 1, 189-202.
Sulloway, F. J. (2001). Birth order, sibling competition, and human behavior. In Conceptual challenges in evolutionary psychology: Innovative research strategies (pp. 39-83). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
Tao, R. (2021). An examination of Chinese undergraduates’ contemplativity and academic stress (Doctoral dissertation, Chapman University). Chapman University Digital Commons. https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000301
Thompson, K., Merrin, G. J., Ames, M. E., & Leadbeater, B. (2018). Marijuana trajectories in Canadian youth: associations with substance use and mental health. Can. J. Beh. Sci. 50, 17–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000090
Voo, J. (2023, June 26). Does birth order determine child’s personality? Parents. https://www.parents.com/baby/development/social/birth-order-and-personality/
Wahi, G. (Ed.). (2023). The Middle Child Syndrome: Medium. https://medium.com/@wahigunjan/the-middle-child-syndrome-5e735eb4b3df
Williams, J. C., & Lynn, S. J. (2010). Acceptance: An historical and conceptual review. Imagination, cognition and personality, 30(1), 5-56.
World Health Organization. (2018). Global status report on alcohol and health 2018. World Health Organization.
Zhang, F., & Yang, R. (2025). Parental expectations and adolescents’ happiness: the role of self-efficacy and connectedness. BMC psychology, 13(1), 24.
Downloads
Published
Data Availability Statement
The data will be available on a reasonable request to the corresponding author through given email.
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Zoya Adnan, Iqra, Ishmal Shahid, Samer Fatima (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Creative Commons-Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International applies to all works published by the Journal of Childhood Literacy and Societal Issues. Authors will retain copyright of the work.
