Perceived parental disfavoritism and life satisfaction in Chinese adolescents: Belief in a just world as the mediator and child gender as the moderator

Abstract

Parental disfavoritism refers to the phenomenon that children tend to perceive their parents to treat their siblings more favorably and it has been demonstrated to be associated with negative child outcomes. This study examined whether adolescents' perception of parental disfavoritism could compromise their personal and general beliefs in a just world (BJW), further lowering their life satisfaction and whether child gender moderated the variable associations. Participants were 648 Chinese middle school students (336 boys and 312 girls, Mage = 12.50, SD = 0.82) who completed questionnaires on their belief in a just world, life satisfaction, and their parents' disfavoritism. Parental disfavoritism was found to be negatively associated with adolescents' belief in a just world and life satisfaction. The personal and general BJWs played important mediating roles in the relationship between perceived parental disfavoritism and adolescent life satisfaction. Adolescent gender moderated both the association between perceived parental disfavoritism and adolescents' personal BJW and that between adolescents' general BJW and life satisfaction. Specifically, both the negative effect of parental disfavoritism on adolescents' personal BJW and the positive effect of the general BJW on adolescents' life satisfaction were stronger for girls than for boys. These findings contribute to child services program aiming to improve adolescents' life satisfaction which could be improved by decreasing parental disfavoritism and increasing adolescents' BJW.