The Cinderella effect is an evolutionary psychology concept describing a higher rate of child abuse and mistreatment by stepparents compared with biological parents. Named for the fairy-tale stepmother who mistreats her stepdaughter, the concept holds that because raising children is costly, parental psychology shaped by natural selection tends to favor investment in genetically related offspring, so stepparents on average show less discriminative parental solicitude toward unrelated stepchildren.
Facts
Core ClaimStepparents show a higher incidence of child abuse and mistreatment than biological parents. 1 Classification
Type of PhenomenonDevelopmental Phenomenon 1 Connections
In Branch
Source Cinderella effect (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Cinderella effect (Wikipedia)
Lead paragraph
In evolutionary psychology, the Cinderella effect describes the phenomenon of a higher incidence of child abuse and mistreatment by stepparents than biological parents.
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
Evolutionary psychologists describe this effect as being a byproduct of a bias towards biological family and a conflict between reproductive partners investing in young children who are unrelated to one partner.
In Branch: Evolutionary Psychology, Categories
Wikipedia article 'Cinderella effect' is filed under Category:Evolutionary psychology.
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