Effect of Fathers’ and Mothers’ Differential Parenting on Emotional Expressivity And Attachment Style of Young Males and Females

Abstract

Differential parenting is a kind of parenting in which parents treat their children differently. It is a comparative process in which one child receives more or less parental positivity or negativity than another child. The impact of Differential Parenting by fathers and mothers on emotional expressivity and attachment styles of males and females was investigated using three scales, Perceived Differential Treatment (Sibling Inventory of Differential Experiences), Emotional Expressivity Scale, and Adult Attachment Scale. The total sample consisted of 150 young adults (males=75, females=75) in the age range of 18-25. The present study aimed to study the effect of fathers’ and mothers’ differential parenting on the emotional expressivity and attachment style of young males and females. The study's objectives were to study how perceived differential treatment by fathers and mothers affects the emotional expression and future relationships of males and females in their young adulthood. The findings of this study indicate that females were emotionally less expressive when they perceived the differential treatment by their fathers, whereas, for males, their emotional expression got affected when they perceived the differential treatment by their mothers. The findings also indicated that the differential parenting by the mothers resulted in having a more significant impact on the anxious attachment style of their daughs and on the avoidant attachment style of their sons. The present study’s strengths and limitations and the implications of the current findings for clinical practice and future research are discussed.