In an article for The Journal for Youth and Adolescence (vol. 36, 2007, pp. 661-
671) Ron Scholte reports his findings after studying 416 sibling pairs. He found that
when younger boys perceived that they were treated less favorably by their mothers than
their older sibling, they were most likely to show high levels of vandalism and violence.
The study also showed that younger girls who felt treated less favorably than their older
sibling, were most likely to show high levels of theft.