Parental Differential Treatment and Adolescents’ Adjustment: The Moderating Effects of Sibling Relationship Quality and Adolescents’ Personality
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2024-07
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study examined the moderating role of sibling relationship quality and adolescents' personalities in the link between parental differential treatment and adolescents‘ adjustment. Additionally, it aimed to investigate the adjustment status of adolescents and explore its relationship with parental differential treatment, sibling relationship quality, and adolescents' personality. The data were collected from 537 randomly selected adolescents from Addis Ababa. The Sibling Inventory of Differential Experience, Adjustment Inventory, Sibling Relationship Questionnaire, and Personality Inventory were used to gather data from the study participants. A correlational research design was employed to address the objectives of the study. The results indicated the prevalence of emotional, social, and educational adjustment problems among adolescents in Addis Ababa, particularly among males. Perceived Parental differential treatment was evident, with parents exhibiting differential control towards males and differential affection towards females. The correlation analysis revealed that parental affection, sibling warmth, conscientiousness, and openness to experience were negatively related to adjustment problems, whereas differential parental control, sibling conflict, and neuroticism were positively linked to poor adjustment. The finding also indicated that parental differential control negatively predicted adjustment, while openness to experience and parental affection positively predicted positive adjustment. Moreover, the study found that sibling relationship quality and adolescents' personality moderated the relationship between adjustment and parental differential treatment. Neurotic adolescents with differentially controlling parents were more susceptible to social, emotional, and educational adjustment problems. Similarly, parental control has an adverse effect on adolescents who have conflicting relationships with their siblings. Furthermore, age was found to moderate the link between parental differential treatment and adolescents‘ adjustment, but gender did not. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of interventions aimed at improving parent-child and sibling relationships to mitigate the impact of sibling conflict and differential parental control. The findings also suggest the need for further research in this area and have practical implications for the parental treatment of siblings and counseling.
Keywords: adjustment, adolescents, sibling relationship, personality, parental differential treatment
Description
Keywords
adjustment, adolescents, sibling relationship, personality, parental differential treatment