Most parents will try to maintain that they don’t have a favourite child.
But a new study suggests that many are actually lying.
Researchers from Brigham Young University have revealed that parents tend to prefer their daughters to their sons.
Meanwhile, people who are conscientious types are likely to be more beloved by their parents – perhaps because they are easier to deal with in life.
The findings come from an in-depth analysis of 30 studies and projects on parental favouritism.
Researchers suspected they might find mothers would prefer their daughters and fathers their sons.
But they actually found both sexes slightly prefer their daughters to their sons.
The results suggest girls and women may be easier to parent.
The analysis looked at personality traits, including conscientiousness, which means being responsible and organised.
Children who were conscientious or agreeable were also more likely to be their parents’ favourites.
Being the favourite in the family is linked to better mental health, more academic success and healthier romantic relationships, previous evidence suggests.
Dr Alexander Jensen, who led the study from Brigham Young University, said: ‘The next time you’re left wondering whether your sibling is the golden child, remember there is likely more going on behind the scenes than just a preference for the eldest or youngest.
‘It might be about responsibility, temperament or just how easy or hard you are to deal with.’
The research, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, examined whether parent-child relationships were influenced by other factors, such as the child’s age or the parent’s gender.
It was found that these factors might play a role, but if they did it was minimal.
However conscientious and agreeable children were slightly more likely to be preferred by their parents.
The researchers state: ‘Because conscientious children are likely more aware of and attuned to family patterns and moods, they may elicit less conflict with a parent than other siblings may.
‘Our findings with conscientiousness are consistent with some work on between-family links of personality with parenting that find that parents are more affectionate and less reactive to conscientious children in part because the parents of conscientious children feel more competent.’
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