Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Date of Graduation
5-14-2026
Semester of Graduation
Spring
Publish
yes
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science (BS)
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Monica Reis-Bergan
Abstract
Research consistently shows that children’s perceptions of differential treatment can have negative and lasting impacts on their well-being. Suitor and colleagues (2017) examined perceptions of favoritism among adult children in the form of emotional closeness, disappointment, conflict, and pride. The current study builds upon prior research by adding fathers, entitlement, and dimensions of practical and financial help. At James Madison University, 235 undergraduate students completed an online survey, which measured depression, entitlement, and social comparison in relation to perceptions of parental treatment. Results indicated associations between perceptions of differential parenting across emotional closeness, disappointment, conflict, pride, and financial and practical help and depressive symptoms.
