“My Brother Was His Little Angel; I Was the Problem Child”: Perceived Sibling Favoritism in the Narratives of Youth Who Become Homeless

Abstract

Youth who become homeless often report having difficult home lives, but very little is known about their experiences with siblings and parents. This article reports on a qualitative study of eight youth, aged 17 to 23 years, experiencing homelessness in Toronto. Seven of the youth felt that their parent(s) favored a sibling over them, leading to the construction of a good child–problem child dichotomy in the household. The perceived disfavoritism resulted in increased family conflict that sometimes escalated to physical violence. As a result of the perceived disfavoritism, all the youth had strained, or nonexistent, relationships with their parent(s); identification of parental disfavoritism as a theme may, with further investigation, be considered a newly identified pathway to the street. These findings demonstrate the complexity of experiences these youth have prior to becoming homeless and highlight the need for further research into parent and sibling relations within their homes.