LOWER PARENTAL INVESTMENT IN STEPCHILDREN: THE CASE OF THE ISRAELI "GREAT JOURNEY".

In comparison to genetic children, stepchildren receive less parental investment, in accordance with the theory of discriminative parental solicitude. The present study investigated this bias in parental funding of "The Great Journey" that many Israeli youths embark on after their military service – typically a backpacking tour in Asia or Latin America. In the current study, 82 students – about half with divorced parents – reported the amount of funding they had received for their "Great Journey." As expected, children whose genetic parents were married received more money to fund their trip than children whose genetic parents were divorced, even after controlling for sex, age, and family income. A novel finding of the study was that youths who were raised by stepfathers received more money for their trip than youths who were raised by stepmothers. This finding is in accordance with the notion that stepfathers use parental investment as a mating strategy.