The Truth About Cinderella

1
The Truth About Cinderella

• Evolutionary explanations for child abuse in
  stepfamilies.
• Laura Fletcher
• Amy Riddett

2
Presentation Outline

• Evolutionary theory
• A Darwinian view of parental love
• Evidence for and against
• Criticisms other issues
• Conclusions

3
The Abused Child

• Child abuse has received a lot of media attention
  in recent years. Most of you will remember the
  Victoria Climbie case (2000).
• Coverage of non-parental abuse, but not
  step-children.
• The abused stepchild is a stock character of
  folklore e.g. Cinderella.
• Daly Wilson (1998) suggest that this is found
  across culture and time, and so there must be
  something to this..

4
Hamilton (1964) Inclusive Fitness

• Being a step-parent has few benefits and lots of
  costs in evolutionary terms lack commonality of
  interest

Step
Parent
Parent
Parent
Giving - Costs
Child
Child
Genes Cont
Genes Cont

Benefits
5
Trivers (1972) Parental Investment

• Parents have limited resources to allocate to
  their children in terms of time, money, attention
  etc.
• In order that their genes can be passed on, they
  need to allocate the right amount of resources to
  ensure their childs survival.
• But enough resources need to be withheld so that
  future offspring can survive too.
• And there needs to be a balance between energy
  spent finding a good mate and energy put into the
  survival of your child.
• So the more resources that are invested into a
  step-child, the less there are for a step-parents
  own future offspring that will carry own genes.

6
So..

• Since having a child of your own is of key
  importance, step-children are a disadvantage.
  They
• Require precious resources.
• Do not pass on your genes.
• They are therefore a cost with few benefits
• Because step-parents are unlikely to feel the
  same level of child-specific love, unlikely to
  gain the emotional rewards.

7
Daly Wilson (1998)A Darwinian view of parental
love

• Successful step-parental relationships dont
  appear to fit into evolutionary theory.
• Children who reside with one genetic parent
  one step-parent incur massive increases in the
  rates of child maltreatment. Having a step-parent
  has turned out to be the most powerful
  epidemiological risk factor for severe child
  maltreatment yet discovered (p7)
• Animal Studies

8
Human Evidence

• US Child Abuse Reports (1976)
• - Child under 3 years 7x more likely to
• become a validated child abuse case.
• - In fatal child abuse cases, the estimated
  rates were 100x greater for those living in
  step-families.
• Further research in Canada
• - Better controlled smaller-scale study.
• - 70x more likely for a child under 2 to be
  killed 40x more likely to be abused.
• Discriminant Abuse

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Supporting Evidence - Examples

• Duberman (1975) only 53 of step-fathers and
• 25 of step-mothers claimed to have any
  parental feelings at all towards their
  step-children.
• Cross-cultural evidence Diverse evidence from a
• variety of countries have shown that
  step-parental mistreatment of children is
  widespread. For
• example, Flinn (1988) Trinidad village. Step
  fathers
• Interactions with their step-children were less
  frequent
• and more aggressive than similar ones between
  genetic fathers and their children.

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Criticisms

• Methodological problems
• Official reports
• Methodologically unsound!
• Who does the abusing?
• 2. Adoptive and single parents

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Contradictory Evidence

• Temrin et al (2001) Swedish Study
• Survey of child homicide 1975-1995 175 child
  murders.
• Children living with a step-parent were not at an
  increased risk compared with children living with
  two genetic parents.
• Of those killed by someone living with them,
  95.7 were killed by a genetic parent, and 4.3
  killed by a non-genetic parent. gt Non-genetic
  parents are not over-represented.
• But Sweden is a more family-centred country, and
  abortions are more widely accepted when dealing
  with unwanted pregnancies.
• There are also far higher rates of children
  (1-4yrs) with step-parents in Sweden.

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Malkin Lamb (1994)

• Tested importance of several factors critical to
  the etiology of child abuse, using AHA data.
• Biological parents were more rather than less
  likely than nonbiological parents to abuse
  severely and kill rather than cause major
  physical injuries to their children
• Didnt replicate Daly Wilsons results, and
  suggest this may be because the association
  between biological relatedness and maltreatment
  was directly tested.
• Discriminant abuse

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One of the main questions asked of Daly Wilson
is If a far higher risk of child abuse is a
consequence of an in-built evolutionary
mechanism, why are most step-parent relationships
successful?
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Indirect Reciprocity Reputation in social group
reciprocity
Step
Parent
In this case the Step-parent invests in the
step-child, and will receive benefits from the
parent because of this. These include access to
the parent as a means of creating his/ her own
offspring reproducing own genes.
Child
Genes Cont

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Critique

• Hamiltons inclusive fitness
• Unfalsifiability of theory
• Circumstantial evidence not causal
• Complexity E.g. sensitive issue

16
Cultural Issues

• The lack of intensive investment, and putting
  energy into finding a mate, occurs when ability
  to increase life chances is low (e.g. through
  poverty).
• Burgess Drais (1999)
• Marriage
• Unmarried fathers more likely to abuse/ kill.
• (Whelan, 1994 Daly Wilson, 2001 Lyman et al,
  2003).
• Stepfathers un/married were still
  over-represented.

17
The Individual

• Individuals as well as groups can deviate from
  social norms (Burgess Drais,1999).
• Personality characteristics such as aggression
  anti-social tendencies have been linked to child
  maltreatment.
• Other issues are also implicated
• age, spousal relationship, competition for
  resources, disruptive intrusion of others,
  position in life-course.
• After 6 years the step-child step-father
  relationship is often as close as that between
  the father and child in a traditional family
  (Amato, 1990)

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Conclusion

• Strong theoretical rationale does fit-
• but just a story!
• Something to think about
• If step-parenthood is a cost, then why get
  involved in the first place?
• Something to discuss
• If men are more likely to abuse, then why are
  step-mothers so prominent in folklore?

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References

• Amato, P.R. (1990) Living in a stepfamily The
  childs view. http//www.saafamilies.org/education
  /articles/skids/amato.htm
• Burgess, R.L. Drais, A.A. (1999) Beyond the
  Cinderella effect Life, History, Theory Child
  Maltreatment. Human Nature, 10, 4, 373-398
• Cronin, N. (1995) Families in Britain. Family
  Policy Studies Centre London.
• Daly, Wilson, (1998) The Truth About
  Cinderella. Weidenfeld Nicolson London.
• Daly, M. Wilson, M. (2001). An assessment of
  some proposed exceptions to the phenomenon of
  nepotistic discrimination against stepchildren.
  www.sekj.org.pdf/anz38-free/anz38-287p.pdf
• Duberman, L. (1975) The reconstituted family A
  study of remarried couples and their children.
  Chicago Nelson Hall.
• Evans, D. Zarate, O. (1999) Introducing
  Evolutionary Psychology. Cambridge Icon Books.
• Flinn, M. (1988a) Mate guarding in a Caribbean
  village. In Buss, D.M. (1995) Evolutionary
  Psychology. Boston Allyn Bacon.
• Gelles, R.J. Harrop, J.W. (1991) In Daly,
  Wilson, (1998) The Truth About Cinderella.
  Weidenfeld Nicolson London.
• Hamilton, W.D.(1964) In Bjorklund, D.F.
  Pellegrini, A.D. (2002) Washington APA.
• Hobbes. In Pinker, S. (2002) The Blank Slate.
  London Allen Lane
• Lyman, J.M., McGwin, G., Malone, D.E., Taylor,
  A.J., Brissie, R.M., Davis, G. Rue, L.W.
  (2003). Epidemiology of child homicide in
  Jefferson County, Alabama. Child Abuse Neglect,
  27, 1063-1073.

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References (cont) Malkin, C.M. Lamb, M.E.
(1994) Child Maltreatment A test of
Sociobiological theory. Journal of Comparative
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Cracken, G.F. (1984) Communal nursing in Mexican
free-tailed bat maternity colonies. Science, 223,
368-373. Orr,H.A. (2003). Darwinian Storytelling.
The New York Review, 50, 3. Panksepp, J.
Panksepp, J.B. (2000) The seven sins of
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uberlab/jules/papera/sevensins.pdf Pinker, S.
(2002) The Blank Slate. London Allen Lane Sas,
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(2001) The truth about Cinderella
http//philosophy.wisc.edu/sullivan/ Temrin, H.,
Buchmayer, S. Enquist, M. (2001) Stepparents
Infanticide New Data contradict Evolutionary
Predictions. http//www.intercult.su.se/refweb/tem
ra/step-parents.html Trivers, R.L. (1972) In In
Buss, D.M. (1995) Evolutionary Psychology.
Boston Allyn Bacon. Whelan (1994) In, Daly, M.
Wilson, M. (2001). An assessment of some
proposed exceptions to the phenomenon of
nepotistic discrimination against stepchildren.
www.sekj.org.pdf/anz38-free/anz38-287p.pdf