anche così ti da errore?
Codice PHP:
$query_folder = "SELECT t1.id ID FROM
favorites AS t1 LEFT JOIN favorites as t2
ON t1.id = t2.parent
WHERE t2.id IS NULL
AND id_user='$id_user' AND type='folder' AND directory='2' ";
$result_folder = mysql_query($query_folder) or die(mysql_error());
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result_folder)){
echo "folder_".$row[ID]."+";
}