Parental Differential Treatment for Adult Children: Interactions, Implications and Interventions
Parental Differential Treatment (PDT) is the conscious or unconscious action of providing one sibling more favorable treatment over another. PDT has consequences for children‟s lives. Several consequences have been identified for children who experience PDT; however there is a dearth of literature exploring the effect of PDT on adult life. This qualitative, phenomenological study is an effort to better understand the lived experiences of adult children with PDT, and its effect on their current adult life. Four people, between the ages of 25-55 who have experienced, or continue to experience PDT participated in this study. The “Modification of the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen” method of analysis was utilized, extracting common themes. Findings indicated that there were many similarities between the participants and the literature review. It also uncovered that there is an essence, essentially various principles to understanding the lived experience of adult children with PDT. Essentially, PDT is either practiced or perceived due to specifics such as: personality, responsibility and expectations. Findings from this study cannot be generalized, as there were only four participants and they were not randomly chosen. The implications of this research in relation to the experiences of PDT are discussed. Directions for future research are also addressed.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina