So what is the truth about Cinderella? Reflections on Daly and Wilson's 1985 paper ‘Child abuse and other risks of not living with both parents’

Catherine Salmon

Chapter 17 in Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, 2026, pp 288-301 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: A common theme in folklore around the world is the evil stepmother, epitomized in the western tale of Cinderella. Despite the ubiquitous nature of these tales, before Daly and Wilson's 1985 paper ‘Child abuse and other risks of not living with both parents’, there was little recognition in the child abuse literature of the increased risk of abuse when living with a stepparent. These Cinderella effects have now been widely reported, though the magnitude of the effects has been shown in some studies to differ across populations. This chapter reviews the state of the literature before Daly and Wilson's seminal paper, the reactions to their work, as well as some unanswered questions that remain to be addressed by future research.

Keywords: Discriminative Parental Solicitude; Cinderella Effects; Stepparents; Child Abuse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035332496
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