Chinese adolescents' positive relationships with parents: The effects of the sex of their younger sibling

We investigated how sibling status and sex of younger siblings influence Chinese adolescents' relationships with their fathers and mothers as a function of resource dilution and preference for sons. The sample included 1,093 adolescents from the 8th grade (M-age = 13.96 years, SD = 0.75 years; 47% girls) and the 11th grade (M-age = 17.25 years, SD = 0.74 years; 57% girls) in a longitudinal study. Consistent with expectations pertaining to the hypothesis of resource dilution and son preference in combination, girls with a younger brother reported less positive relationships with mothers than either singleton girls or girls with a younger sister. No significant difference was found between singleton boys and boys with a younger sibling. The current findings show implications that the resource-dilution theory and son preference culture together may place girls with a younger brother in an unfavorable condition of resource allocation.