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Poster #70 - Sibling experiences of parental differential treatment during COVID-19: The role of individual and environmental factors

Fri, March 24, 3:30 to 4:15pm, Salt Palace Convention Center, Floor: 1, Hall A-B

Abstract

Children's characteristics (e.g., gender, age, temperament), parents' psychological resources, and contextual factors (e.g., household chaos) influence parental differential treatment (Atzaba-Poria & Pike, 2008). Considering those individual and contextual factors, COVID-19 may have a devastating impact on children's perceptions of parental differential treatment (DT). Therefore, the current study investigated the role of individual and environmental factors on siblings' perceptions about maternal and paternal differential treatment during COVID-19 after controlling for the experiences of pre-pandemic parental differential treatment and structural variables.
The study is a part of a larger project aiming to investigate parenting practices' influence on child outcomes. In the larger project, 350 children and adolescents were recruited till COVID-19 hit, and the main project had to be stopped. Then, during the COVID-19 lockdown, eight to nine months after the first data collection, the same participants were contacted with additional questions related to the pandemic.
There were some selection criteria for sampling in the current study: a) no more than a ten-year-age difference between siblings (n = 277), b) having at least one sibling (n = 201), and c) living together with their siblings (n= 197). A total of 182 children remained for the final analysis. Children completed the scale for parental differential treatment (Sibling Perceptions of Differential Parental Treatment Scale) and the scale for experiences (contact with others and difficulties with online education) during COVID-19. Mothers also filled out the scales for their experiences during COVID-19, daily hassles, home chaos, and temperamental traits of their children (negative affect, overreaction to stimuli, and depth of processing).
Two hierarchical regression analyses were separately performed for each parent's DT in positive and negative domains. The findings about maternal differential treatment(MDT) indicated that children with higher levels of overreaction to stimuli had perceived more favorable MDT in positive domains compared to their siblings after controlling time one data and other demographic variables (β = .09, p = .03). However, children experiencing higher levels of difficulties with the online education (β = -.07, p = .07) and living in the more chaotic home environment (β = -.01, p = .002) in the period of pandemic perceived less favorable MDT in positive domains than their siblings. In addition, children with higher levels of negative affect tended to perceive more MDT in negative domains compared to their siblings after controlling first wave data and other demographic variables (β = .05, p = .06). Besides, children who have experienced more difficulties in online education were more likely to perceive more unfavorable MDT in negative domains than their siblings (β = .08, p = .01). See Table 1 for detailed results. For the paternal differential treatment(PDT), neither the positive domains nor negative domains showed significant findings (see Table 2).
Overall, this study contributed to aspects of COVID-19 and sibling-related literature. Specifically, the differences between mother and father-related findings, temperament, and COVID-19-related factors on differential treatment will be discussed.

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