Childhood Parental Disfavoritism and Chinese Adults’ Psychological Well-Being in Middle and Later Life: The Moderating Effect of Gender

Abstract

Abstract Objectives Parental differential treatment of children, particularly disfavoritism, has been found to detrimentally affect adult children’s psychological well-being in the United States. However, no study has investigated the long-reaching influence of parental disfavoritism in China, where there is an absence of equal treatment norms. Drawing from theories of social comparison, life course, and gender dynamics in China, we tested how perceptions of childhood parental disfavoritism affect midlife and older Chinese adults’ depressive symptoms, and how the effects differ by own and parent’s gender. Methods Random-intercept models were used based on a sample of 17,682 midlife and older Chinese adults, drawn from 5 waves of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Results Recollections of childhood parental disfavoritism were associated with higher depressive symptoms among Chinese adults. Perceptions of paternal disfavoritism predicted both men’s and women’s depressive symptoms, whereas perceptions of maternal disfavoritism predicted women’s depressive symptoms only. Paternal disfavoritism was more detrimental than maternal disfavoritism, but only for men. Maternal disfavoritism was more detrimental for women than men. Discussion These findings shed light on the universality of the long-reaching detrimental effect of perceptions of parental disfavoritism across cultures as well as the unique gendered patterns in China shaped by patriarchy. Findings suggest that the implementation of Three-Child Policy in China should be accompanied with parental education programs involving fathers on equal treatment of children.