In  genealogy  and in  phylogenetic  studies of  evolutionary biology ,  antecedents  or  antecessors  are predecessors in a family line. For example, one is the descendant of their grandparents, who are one's antecedents. This term has particular utility in evolutionary  coalescent theory , which models the process of  genetic drift  in reverse time. [ 1 ]


The  antonym  of  antecedent  is  descendant .


An  adoption detective  is any licensed or unlicensed person who looks into historic records to locate persons of interest. Clients are children suffering from  genealogical bewilderment  with a desire to learn something about their genetic antecedents by tracing family lineages to become enlightened about their ancestral social and cultural heritage; discover the geographical  niche  from which their ancestral population originated; and meet biological descendants. [ 2 ]


In European  genealogy , a  descent from antiquity  ( DFA  or  DfA ) is a proven unbroken line of descent between specific individuals from  ancient history  and people living today.  Ancestry can readily be traced back to the  Early Middle Ages , but beyond that, insufficient documentation of the ancestry of the new royal and noble families of the period makes tracing them to historical figures from antiquity challenging.  Though the subject of ongoing effort, no well-researched, historically-documented generation-by-generation genealogical descents are known to exist in Europe.


The idea of descent from antiquity is by no means new to genealogy. Hellenistic dynasties, such as the  Ptolemies , claimed ancestry from deities and mythical figures. In the Middle Ages, major royal dynasties of Europe sponsored compilations claiming their descent from  Julius Caesar ,  Alexander the Great , and in particular the rulers of  Troy  (see also  Euhemerism ). Such claims were intended as propaganda glorifying a royal patron by trumpeting the antiquity and nobility of his ancestry. These lines of descent included not only mythical figures but also outright invention, much of which is still widely perpetuated today.


The distinguishing feature of a DFA compared to such traditional pedigrees is the intent to establish an ancestry that is historically accurate and verifiable in each generation of the descent, setting the DFA apart from the legendary descents found in medieval genealogical sources and from modern  pseudogenealogical  descents appearing in books like  The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail  and  The Da Vinci Code .   DFA research has focused on the ancestries of royal and noble families, since the historical record is most complete for such families.  Particular attention has focused on possible genealogical links between the new dynasties of western Europe from which well-documented descents are known, such as the  Carolingians ,  Robertians ,  Cerdicings , and the  Astur-Leonese dynasty , through the ruling families of the post-Roman Germanic dynasties and Franco-Romans to the gentility of the Roman Empire, or in the Eastern Mediterranean linking the royal Armenian wives of some  Byzantine  emperors through the ruling families of the  Caucasus  to the rulers of the  Hellenistic ,  Parthian , and Roman-client kingdoms of the Middle East.


The phrase  descent from antiquity  was used by  Tobias Smollett  in the 18th-century newspaper  The Critical Review . Reviewing  William Betham 's  Genealogical Tables of the Sovereigns of the World, from the earliest to the present period,  he wrote "From a barren list of names we learn who were the fathers or mothers, or more distant progenitors, of the select few, who are able to trace what is called their descent from antiquity." [ 1 ]  The possibility of establishing a DFA as a result of serious genealogical research was raised in a pair of influential essays, by  Iain Moncreiffe  and  Anthony Wagner . Wagner explored the reasons why it was difficult to do and suggested several possible methods. The following years have seen a number of studies of possible methods by which an appropriately documented ancestry might be found. These methods typically involve either linkages among the ruling dynasties of the post-Roman Empire Germanic states, or those between the ancient dynasties of the Caucasus and the rulers of the Byzantine Empire.  Though based largely on historical documentation, these proposed methods have invariably resorted to speculation based on known political relationships and onomastics - the tendency of families to name children in honor of relatives is used as evidence for hypothesized relationships between people bearing the same name.  Proposed DFAs vary greatly both in the quality of their research and the degree to which speculation plays a role in their proposed connections.


No European DFA is accepted as established. The outlines of several  possible  ancestries that could become DFAs have been proposed, but they each lack crucial evidence. Nonetheless, the pursuit of DFAs has stimulated detailed inquiry into the  prosopography  of ancient and early medieval societies.


An  aunt  is a  woman  who is a  sibling  of a  parent  or  married  to a sibling of a parent. Aunts who are  related by birth  are  second-degree  relatives. Alternate terms include  auntie  or  aunty . Children in other cultures and families may refer to the  cousins  of their parents as aunt or uncle due to the age and generation gap. The word comes from  Latin :  amita  via  Old French   ante  and is a  family  relationship within an extended or immediate family.


The male counterpart of an aunt is an  uncle , and the reciprocal relationship is that of a  nephew or niece . The gender-neutral term  pibling , a shortened form of  parent's sibling , may refer to either an aunt or an uncle. [ 1 ]


Aunts by birth (sister of a parent) are  related  to their nieces and nephews by 25%. As half-aunts are related through half-sisters, they are related by 12.5% to their nieces and nephews. Non-consanguineous aunts (female spouse of a relative) are not genetically related to their nieces and nephews.


In some cultures, such as  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander  peoples of Australia, respected senior members of the community, often also referred to as  Elders , are addressed as " uncle " (for men) and "aunt" for women, as a mark of seniority and respect, whether related or not, [ 6 ] [ 7 ]  such as  Aunty Kathy Mills . [ 8 ]


In several cultures, no single inclusive term describing both a person's  kinship  to their parental female sibling or parental female in-law exists. Instead, there are specific terms describing a person's kinship to their mother's female sibling, and a person's kinship to their father's female sibling, per the following table: [ citation needed ]


Aunts in popular culture have not always been portrayed as positive roles.  Childless aunts are often subjected to  othering  in popular culture and presented as exotic or as having a second-best role, with  motherhood  preferred. [ 9 ]


Aunt Flo  is a popular euphemism referring to the  menstrual cycle .


An  agony aunt  is a colloquial term for a female  advice columnist .


Fictional aunts include:


Bilateral descent  is a system of family  lineage  in which the relatives on the mother's side and father's side are equally important for emotional ties or for transfer of property or wealth. It is a family arrangement where descent and inheritance are passed equally through both parents. [ 1 ]  Families who use this system trace descent through both parents simultaneously and recognize multiple ancestors, but unlike with  cognatic  descent it is not used to form descent groups. [ 2 ]


While bilateral descent is increasingly the norm in  Western culture , traditionally it is only found among relatively few groups in  West Africa ,  India ,  Australia ,  Indonesia ,  Melanesia ,  Malaysia , the Philippines, and  Polynesia . Anthropologists believe that a tribal structure based on bilateral descent helps members live in extreme environments because it allows individuals to rely on two sets of families dispersed over a wide area. [ 3 ]  Historically,  North Germanic peoples  in  Scandinavia  in the  Late Iron Age  and  Early Middle Ages  had a bilateral society, where the descent of both parents were important. [ 4 ]  Genealogies featuring the legendary danish king  Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye  gives him the matronymic name  Áslaugsson  due to his mother  Aslaug 's connection to  Völsungs .


Under bilateral descent, every tribe member belongs to two clans, one through the father (a patriclan) and another through the mother (a matriclan). For example, among the  Himba , clans are led by the eldest male in the clan. Sons live with their father's clan and when daughters marry they go to live with the clan of their husband. However inheritance of wealth does not follow the patriclan but is determined by the matriclan i.e. a son does not inherit his father's cattle but his maternal uncle's instead. [ 3 ]


Javanese people , the largest ethnic group in  Indonesia , also adopt a bilateral kinship system. [ 5 ] [ 6 ]  Nonetheless, it has some tendency toward  patrilineality . [ 7 ]


The Dimasa Kachari people of Northeast India has a system of dual family clan. The  Urapmin people , a small tribe in  Papua New Guinea , have a system of kinship classes known as  tanum miit . The classes are inherited bilaterally from both parents. Since they also practice strict  endogamy , most Urapmin belong to all of the major classes, creating great fluidity and doing little to differentiate individuals. [ 8 ]


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The  bloodline theory  ( simplified Chinese :  血统论 ;  traditional Chinese :  血統論 ) or  blood lineage theory  was a political theory associated with the " Loyalist Faction " ( Baohuang Pai ) of the  Red Guards  during the early phase of the  Cultural Revolution  in the  People's Republic of China . Opponents included the  "Rebel Faction"  ( Zaofan Pai ) of the Red Guards.


According to the bloodline theory, the defining factor in a person's  class standing  was their family's class position. It was expressed by the  bloodline couplet , "from a revolutionary father a hero, from a reactionary father a bastard." Although this position was politically-discredited, it continued to have a political impact during the Cultural Revolution.


According to the bloodline theory, the defining factor in a person's class standing was their family's class position. [ 1 ]  Regardless of a person's current position, they could not be considered as among the revolutionary people unless their family background was that of the poor or middle peasants, proletariat, or soldiers and would instead be considered among the so-called  Five Black Categories . [ 1 ]  In some instances, the criteria for Red Guard membership was so exacting that for purposes of the bloodline theory, family background would be traced back to grandparents or distant relatives. [ 2 ]


The essence of the bloodline theory was summarized by the slogan, "from a revolutionary father a hero, from a reactionary father a bastard." [ 3 ]  Other permutations of this bloodline couplet included the phrase, "it is basically like this" or the phrase "it is exactly like this," suggesting that advocates of the bloodline theory may have disagreed about the weight that it should have. [ 2 ]


In the period after the success of the  Chinese Communist Revolution , the newly-founded People's Republic of China had to address the building of socialist governance, norms, and order. [ 4 ] : 415   These state building tasks involved questions of who the next leaders would be and where they would be found (i.e., among families that had already included revolutionary leaders, or among the youth). [ 4 ] : 415–416


Under normal circumstances, the  Chinese Communist Party  (CCP)'s policy was that individuals should not be judged on family class background alone, but rather by their political performance. [ 5 ] : 114   At the Cultural Revolution's outset, questions of legacy or succession reached their peak, [ 4 ] : 416   with some children of senior  cadre  criticized the emphasis on political performance as part of  Peng Zhen's  "revisionist class line." [ 5 ] : 114


The bloodline theory began in secondary schools and spread from there to universities. [ 5 ] : 114–115   In late July 1966, variations of the bloodline couplet began appearing among Red Guard groups, with several different student groups claiming to have originated it. [ 2 ]  In the view of these early Red Guards (also known as "Old Red Guards"), class origin was the most important criteria for group membership. In descending order of status, these were: (1) children of army officials, (2) children of civilian state cadres, (3) children with working class family backgrounds, and (4) children from peasant backgrounds. [ 2 ]  Anyone not from "red origins" would be excluded, and those with the "purest bloodline" were still viewed in a hierarchy. [ 2 ]


The bloodline couplet caused major controversy. [ 5 ] : 114–115   Shortly after its appearance, arguments broke out primarily within the ranks of Red Guard students over how to interpret the principle. [ 2 ]  The bloodline theory was initially widespread among student activists during the Cultural Revolution, but was then strongly criticized by the  Maoists . [ 3 ]  Significant public opposition to the bloodline theory began in late 1966. [ 2 ]


Chen Boda  was the first Maoist leader to criticize the bloodline couplet, stating, "A theory of 'born-redness' has become popular lately. Those advancing this fallacy actually have attacked and marginalized the children of workers and peasants . . . . They confuse some students and encourage them to present the couplet, 'If the father is a hero, the son is also a hero.'" [ 2 ]   Jiang Qing  famously inverted the bloodline theory's slogan, and argued that if parents were revolutionaries then their children should follow their example, but if parents were reactionaries, then their children should rebel. [ 3 ]  In 1966, middle school student  Yu Luoke  wrote a popular pamphlet,  On Class Origins , that played a significant role in discrediting the bloodline theory. [ 3 ]


In the view of academic Alessandro Russo, the bloodline theory was a form of "biological classism" and "ideological trick" which ultimately failed because of how widespread political participation was during the early phase of the Cultural Revolution. [ 3 ]  Russo writes that even after the theory was politically discredited, it continued to have an impact during the Cultural Revolution. [ 3 ]


Historian Rebecca Karl observes that the bloodline theory had the "curious effect of casting suspicion on the vast majority of the old revolutionaries. After all, the nucleus of the CCP back in the 1920s and 1930s had been urban, educated youths along with some offspring of landlord or rich peasant families (for example, Mao himself)." [ 1 ]


Breastfeeding  is highly regarded in Islam. The Qur'an regards it as a sign of love between the mother and child. In  Islamic law , breastfeeding creates ties of  milk kinship  (known as  raḍāʿ  or  riḍāʿa  ( Arabic :  رضاع, رضاعة    pronounced   [riˈdˤaːʕ(a)] )) that has implications in  family law . [ 1 ] [ 2 ]  Muslims throughout the world have varied breastfeeding traditions.


Several Qur'anic verses, all dating from the Medinan period, lay down the Islamic ethic of breastfeeding
 [ 3 ] : 106    Quran   28:7  and  Quran   28:12  refer to the nursing of  Islamic prophet Moses  to emphasize the loving bond between baby Moses and his mother. [ 3 ] :  106    Breastfeeding is implied as a basic  Maternal bond  in  Quran   22:2 , which considers a mother neglecting nursing of her child as an unusual sign. [ 3 ] : 106


Breastfeeding is considered a  basic right of every infant , according to the Qur'an. [ 4 ]   Quran   2:233 . In the case where the child's mother has been divorced by the child's father before or after delivery within the  breastfeeding period, the Qur'an also  calls on fathers to sponsor the child's nursing by providing food and clothing for the child's mother for duration of breastfeeding, although it allows for earlier weaning of the child by mutual consent of both mother and father. [ 3 ] : 106   The same verse also allows for motherly breastfeeding to be substituted by  wet nursing . [ 3 ] : 106    Quran   65:6–7  expects the father of the child to be generous towards the wet nurse. [ 5 ] : 477


The Quran regards ties due to milk kinship similar to ties due to  blood kinship . [ 5 ] : 477   Therefore  Quran   4:23  prohibits a man from having sexual relations with his "milk mother" or "milk sister"; [ 3 ] : 107   hadith explain that the wet-nurse's husband is also included as a milk kin, [ 5 ] : 477   eg. a woman may not marry her wet-nurse's husband.
According to scholars, this prohibition is not found in the Jewish and Christian tradition, though it is found in  matrilineal  groups. [ 3 ] : 107


Breastfeeding is considered  one of the most fundamental  rights of a child  in Islamic law. [ 4 ]  Muslim jurists have given extensive treatment to this topic, for example  Al-Mawardi  (d. 1058) wrote an entire treatise  Kitab al-rada  on the topic of breastfeeding. [ 4 ]  This includes the specifics related to the right of being breastfed, as well as implications of breastfeeding on prohibiting marriage between individuals related by milk kinship.


The right to be breastfed is considered one of the most important rights of a child in Islamic law. [ 4 ]  If the mother is unable to breastfeed the child, then the father must pay a wet nurse to do so. [ 6 ]  If the parents of the child are divorced, the father must compensate his former wife with payments during breastfeeding. [ 7 ]  The  Jafaris  further opine that a mother has the right to compensation for breastfeeding even if the parents are married. [ 6 ]  However, the Sunni schools of thought disagree, arguing the father is not obligated to pay the mother if the two are divorced; [ 6 ]  the wife already has the right to maintenance (food and clothing) under Islamic law. [ 8 ]


Some opinions hold that a mother has the right to breastfeed her children, but can choose not to if she wishes. [ 8 ]  This is an extension of the general principle, in Islamic law, that a mother has the right to raise her children, but she may renounce this right as it is not her duty. [ 8 ]


If a woman is breastfeeding, they do not have to fast during  Ramadan . But they can choose to fast if they want to. Fasting can cause difficulties in breastfeeding. [ 9 ]


The Qur'an regards breastfeeding to establish milk kinship which has implications for marriage.


Islamic jurisprudence  extensively discusses the precise delineation of which relationships are  subject to prohibition  once the milk relationship is established. Shi'ite Islam also prohibits marriage to the consanguineous kin of a milk-parent as per the Qur'an. In Shi'ite societies, the wet nurse was always from a subordinate group, so that marriage to her kin would not have been likely. Texts mentioned that  Ahmad ibn Hanbal , founder of the  Hanbali   school of jurisprudence , also dealt with similar questions. [ 10 ]


The minimum number of sucklings necessary to establish the milk-kinship, has been the subject of extensive debate. For the adherents of older  schools of law , such as the  Malikis  and  Hanafis , one suckling was enough. Others, such as the  Shafiʿis , maintain that the minimum number was five or ten, arguing that a  Qur'ānic  verse had once stipulated this number until had been  abrogated  from the  Qur'ānic text , but the ruling was still in place. Imam Malik, however, believed that the ruling was abrogated along with the wording. [ 11 ] [ 12 ]


The following tradition ( hadith ) treats both this topic as well as that of  radāʿ al-kabīr , or  suckling of an adult  or  breastfeeding an adult  and number of sucklings:


Urwah ibn al-Zubayr  reports that the Prophet commanded the wife of Abū Hudhayfa to feed her husband's  mawlā  [i.e. servant], Sālim, so that he could go on living with them [upon attaining manhood]. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ]


For most jurists ( Ibn Hazm  being one prominent exception), the bar to marriage was effective only if the nursling was an infant. Yet even these allowed that a new relationship resulted between the two;  Ibn Rushd , for example, ruled that the woman could now comport herself more freely in front of the nursed adult male, such as appearing before him  unveiled . [ 17 ]  The famous  traditionist   Muhammad al-Bukhari  was forced to resign his position of  mufti  and leave the city of  Bukhara  after ruling that two nurslings who suckled from the same farm animal became milk-siblings. [ 18 ]


A  brother  ( pl. :  brothers  or  brethren ) is a  man  or  boy  who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. [ 1 ]  The female counterpart is a  sister . Although the term typically refers to a  familial  relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familial relationships. [ 2 ]  A full brother is a  first degree relative .


The term  brother  comes from the  Proto-Indo-European  *bʰréh₂tēr, which becomes  Latin   frater , of the same meaning.  Sibling  warmth or affection between male siblings has been correlated to some more negative effects. In pairs of brothers, higher sibling warmth is related to more risk taking behaviour, although risk taking behaviour is not related to sibling warmth in any other type of sibling pair. The cause of this phenomenon in which sibling warmth is only correlated with risk taking behaviours in brother pairs still is unclear. This finding does, however, suggest that although sibling conflict is a risk factor for risk taking behaviour, sibling warmth does not serve as a protective factor. [ 4 ]  Some studies suggest that girls having an older brother delays the onset of  menarche  by roughly one year. [ 5 ]  Research also suggests that the likelihood of being  gay  increases with the more older brothers a man has. [ 6 ]  Some analyzers have suggested that a man's attractiveness to a heterosexual woman may increase with the more he resembles her brother, while his  unattractiveness  may increase the more his likeness diverges from her brother. [ 7 ]  Females with a twin or very close-in-age brother, sometimes view him as their male alter ego, or what they would have been like, if they had a Y chromosomes. [ 8 ]


The book Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII written by Aristotle in 350 B.C.E., offers a way in which people should view the relationships between biological brothers. The relationship of brothers is laid out with the following quote:
"The friendship of brothers has the characteristics found in that of comrades and in general between people who are like each other, is as much as they belong more to each other and start with a love for each other from their very birth, and in as much as those born to the same parents and brought up together and similarly educated are more akin in character; and the test of time has been applied most fully and convincingly in their case". [ 9 ]
For these reasons, it is the job of the older brother to influence the ethics of the younger brother by being a person of good action. Aristotle says "by imitating and reenacting the acts of good people, a child becomes habituated to good action". Over time the younger brother will develop the good actions of the older brother as well and be like him. Aristotle also adds this on the matter of retaining the action of doing good once imitated: "Once the habits of ethics or immorality become entrenched, they are difficult to break." [ 10 ]  The good habits that are created by the influence of the older brother become habit in the life of the younger brother and turn out to be seemingly permanent. It is the role of the older brother to be a positive influence on the development of the younger brother's upbringing when it comes to the education of ethics and good actions. When positive characteristics are properly displayed to the younger brother by the older brother, these habits and characteristics are imitated and foster an influential understanding of good ethics and positive actions.


In  genealogy , a  cadet  is a younger  son , as opposed to the firstborn  heir .


The word has been recorded in  English  since 1634, originally for a young son, identical to the  French , which is itself derived from the  Gascon   Occitan  (spoken in  Gascony  in southwest France)  capdet  "captain, chief", in turn from the  Late Latin   capitellum , the diminutive of Latin  caput  "head" (hence also chief).


Younger sons from Gascon families were apparently commonly sent to the French court to serve as officers; as a rule, non-heirs from the European nobility sought careers in the military or the clergy.


As an adjective, "cadet" is used to signify a junior branch of a family. Thus, the  Orléans  line was a  cadet branch  of the  Bourbon  family, which itself was a  cadet branch  of the  House of Capet .


For the status as such, the noun  cadency  exists, as in the  heraldic  term  mark of cadency , for a feature which distinguishes a cadet son's  coat of arms  from the father's which is passed on unaltered only to the (usually firstborn) heir.


Military has been the traditional career choice of the nobility throughout the centuries, and it has been customary that the firstborn son inherited the title, lands and possessions, while the younger sons of a noble family went to the military, often to be trained as officers. Hence the meaning " cadet branch " for a junior branch of a family and the term " cadet " for an officer trainee.


A  cadet branch  consists of the  male-line  descendants of a  monarch 's or  patriarch 's younger sons ( cadets ). In the ruling  dynasties  and  noble  families of much of  Europe  and  Asia , the family's major assets ( realm ,  titles ,  fiefs , property and income) have historically been passed from a father to his firstborn son in what is known as  primogeniture ; younger sons, the cadets, inherited less wealth and authority (such as a small  appenage ) to pass on to  future generations  of descendants.


In families and cultures in which that was not the custom or law, such as the feudal  Holy Roman Empire , the equal distribution of the family's holdings among male members was eventually apt to so fragment the inheritance as to render it too small to sustain the descendants at the  socio-economic  level of their forefather. Moreover, brothers and their descendants sometimes quarreled over their allocations, or even became estranged. While  agnatic primogeniture  became a common way of keeping the family's wealth intact and reducing familial disputes, it did so at the expense of younger sons and their descendants. Both before and after a  state legal default  of inheritance by primogeniture, younger brothers sometimes vied with older brothers to be chosen as their father's heir or, after the choice was made, sought to usurp the elder's birthright.


In such cases, primary responsibility for promoting the family's prestige, aggrandizement, and fortune fell upon the senior branch for future generations. A cadet, having less means, was not expected to produce a family. If a cadet chose to raise a family, its members were expected to maintain the family's social status by avoiding  derogation , but could pursue endeavors too demeaning or too risky for the senior branch, such as emigration to another sovereign's realm, engagement in commerce, or a profession such as law, religion, academia, military service or government office.


Some cadet branches came to inherit the crown of the senior line, e.g. the  Bourbon   Counts of Vendôme  mounted the throne of France (after civil war) in 1593; the  House of Savoy-Carignan  succeeded to the kingdoms of  Sardinia  (1831) and  Italy  (1861); the  Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken  obtained the  Palatine Electorate  of the Rhine (1799) and the  Kingdom of Bavaria  (1806); and a deposed  Duke of Nassau  was restored to sovereignty in the  Grand Duchy of Luxembourg  (1890).


In other cases, a junior branch came to eclipse more senior lines in rank and power, e.g. the  Electors and Kings of Saxony  who were a younger branch of the  House of Wettin  than the  Grand Dukes of Saxe-Weimar .


A still more  junior branch of the Wettins , headed by the rulers of the small  Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , would, through diplomacy or marriage in the 19th and 20th centuries, obtain or consort and sire the royal crowns of, successively,  Belgium ,  Portugal ,  Bulgaria  and the  Commonwealth realms . Also, marriage to cadet males of the Houses of Oldenburg (Holstein-Gottorp),  Polignac , and Bourbon-Parma brought those dynasties patrilineally to the thrones of  Russia ,  Monaco , and Luxembourg, respectively. The Dutch royal house has, at different times, been a cadet branch of Mecklenburg and Lippe(-Biesterfeld). In the Commonwealth realms, the male-line descendants of  Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh  are cadet members of the  House of Glücksburg .


It was a risk that cadet branches maintaining legal heirs could sink in status because shrunken wealth that was too meagre to survive the shifting political upheavals (legal mechanisms in factionalism or revolution of  attainder ,  capital offences  and  show trials ) as much as unpopularity or distance from the reigning line.


Casato  is the principle of  kinship  practiced in early modern Europe. Casato focuses on the vertical lineage passed on from fathers to sons. It is also known as the  agnatic  perspective. This is different from the opposing term parentado which stresses kinship formation that included the role of women and men. Both casato and  parentado  coexisted in early modern Italy.


In 1684, a prominent Roman  jurist  by the name of Cardinal  Giovanni Battista de Luca  published a comment regarding a law previously passed by  Pope Innocent XI  in 1680. This law sought to exclude women from interstate succession, by upholding municipal law. This was authorized in 187 communities of the Papal state, along with key cities including Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Turin, Pisa, Siena, Lucia, and Mantua.


De Luca's comment brings to light the  patrilineal  and bilineal view of kinship in early modern Italy. While Roman and municipal law co-existed in Italy's legal pluralism, they differed regarding women and their place regarding inheritance rules. "Although Roman law excluded women from all legal and political positions on the grounds of their inability to act on behalf of others, it did acknowledge their right to own and dispose of property, and gave daughters and sons equal inheritance rights to their father's estate". [ citation needed ]


The legal condition of women stemmed from late medieval city statutes. Municipal statutes limited women's right to inherit as they receive a dowry at the time of marriage. This sought to set forth a form of male guardianship over all women, particularly their property. Jurists justified their decision to exclude daughters from inheritance by "the preservation of the family, as defined by agnation or the male line". [ citation needed ]


Agnation and cognation differ in that the former refers to a relation through someone male and the latter to a relation through either gender. Agnation under Roman law never implied women's exclusion from inheritance, but rather specified that a daughter's inheritance rights cam through her father. Once the corpus juris civilis was rediscovered in the 12th century, most cities in Italy passed "laws of their own that excluded women from succession". [ citation needed ]


The agnatic and cognatic kinship lines are at odds with each other. The agnatic/casato view is the vertical chain of fathers to sons, while parentado/cognatic view is based on relationships which include matrilineal kinship. Thus, the agnatic perspective removed women from the family map, whereas with the cognatic view, women were involved and seen as agents in kinship tie construction (through marital alliances and the exchange of dowries).


It is also imperative to stress that both the agnatic and cognatic views existed simultaneously in Italy from antiquity up to the end of the ancient regime. "The two principles did not represent successive stages in the evolution of kinship but two coexisting ways to think about the family which would be complementary but also in conflict with each other". [ citation needed ]  Casa/casato refers to the agnatic perspective, and parentado refers to the cognatic perspective.


Restrictions placed on women were strongest in regards to property. The favored primogeniture and lineage based on agnatic lines (or patrilineage) restricted a woman's right to inherit, and in specific parts of Europe, of dower. Lineage based on the male line, under which the eldest son inherited the majority of the estate, became standard from the 11th and 12th centuries onward. "It was accepted that daughters had a right to a share in the family property, and in many areas the dowry came to be regarded as the daughter's share". [ citation needed ]


In the 15th centuries, Castilian brides were at times asked to forfeit their rights to the remainder of the family estate once they married and received their dowry. As the provision of a dowry became essential for marriage, patrilineage increased in importance. By the 13th century, the dowry had largely taken the place of brideprice or bridewealth, given by the husband or his family on his marriage.


Dower, the money/property given by the husband to his wife so that she might support herself should she become widowed, became less important and women's right to dispose of property became more limited. Such changes were correlated with a woman's influence and standing in the family, and in society. There were great regional differentiations in the laws on women's inheritance and dower. [ citation needed ]


In southern Europe, male inheritance was the norm, as it was perpetuated through the influence of the lineage. It was commonplace for the oldest son to inherit the house and other real property, along with the bulk of the estate. A smaller portion was divided among the younger sons, while the daughters received their dowry.


By the early 13th century, similar circumstances were occurring in Spain. At Barcelona, a single male heir who inherited the majority of the family's property was becoming the norm. Nonetheless, daughters still received inheritance from their parents alongside their dowries. The dowry was considered as the "wife's property, although usually administered by the husband". [ citation needed ]


In England, Scotland, and Wales, women were seen as the weaker sex, both physically and emotionally. These references of women strengthened a patriarchal society. "Being less rational than men, women should submit to the authority of their husbands and masters". [ citation needed ]


During early modern times, the family was seen as a miniature version of the state. The authority of the king was dependent upon an equivalent recognition of the authority of the husband in the household. It was assumed that patriarchy, hierarchy, and monarchy would both stand together and fall together. [ citation needed ]


During the 14th and 15th centuries, there were attempts to strengthen male inheritance in both southern and northern Europe. Such moves were witnessed among the nobility and strengthened the idea of a family as an empire built on lineage that was centred on a male head of household and embedded "in chivalry and the heroism of its ancestors". [ citation needed ]


The entail established itself to be a successful means of reinforcing the patrilineage. "By this means, the succession to the estate was legally settled during the father's lifetime, usually on the eldest son, and could not be overturned after his death". [ citation needed ]  In England, members of the higher nobility created entails to guarantee male succession, such as John de Vere, Earl of Oxford. [ further explanation needed ]  Further, male heirs were also favoured in Ireland and Scotland. [ citation needed ]


A  child  ( pl.   children ) is a  human  being between the stages of  birth  and  puberty , [ 1 ] [ 2 ]  or between the  developmental period  of  infancy  and puberty. [ 3 ]  The term may also refer to an unborn human being. [ 4 ] [ 5 ]  In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of  child  generally refers to a  minor , in this case as a person younger than the local  age of majority  (there are exceptions like, for example, the consume and purchase of  alcoholic beverage  even after said age of majority [ 6 ] ), regardless of their physical, mental and sexual development as biological  adults . [ 1 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]  Children generally have fewer  rights  and responsibilities than adults. They are generally classed as unable to make serious decisions.


Child  may also describe a relationship with a  parent  (such as  sons  and  daughters  of any age) [ 9 ]  or,  metaphorically , an  authority figure , or signify group membership in a clan, tribe, or religion; it can also signify being strongly affected by a specific time, place, or circumstance, as in "a child of nature" or "a child of the Sixties." [ 10 ]


In the biological sciences, a child is usually defined as a person between birth and puberty, [ 1 ] [ 2 ]  or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. [ 3 ]  Legally, the term  child  may refer to anyone below the age of majority or some other age limit.


The  United Nations   Convention on the Rights of the Child  defines  child  as, "A human being below the age of 18 years unless under the  law  applicable to the child,  majority  is attained earlier." [ 11 ]  This is ratified by 192 of 194 member countries. The term  child  may also refer to someone below another legally defined age limit unconnected to the age of majority. In  Singapore , for example, a  child  is legally defined as someone under the age of 14 under the "Children and Young Persons Act" whereas the age of majority is 21. [ 12 ] [ 13 ]  In U.S. Immigration Law, a child refers to anyone who is under the age of 21. [ 14 ]


Some English definitions of the word  child  include the  fetus  (sometimes termed  the unborn ). [ 15 ]  In many cultures, a child is considered an adult after undergoing a  rite of passage , which may or may not correspond to the time of puberty.


Children generally have fewer rights than adults and are classed as unable to make serious decisions, and legally must always be under the care of a responsible adult or  child custody , whether their parents divorce or not.


Early childhood  follows the  infancy  stage and begins with  toddlerhood  when the child begins speaking or taking steps independently. [ 16 ] [ 17 ]  While toddlerhood ends around age 3 when the child becomes less dependent on parental assistance for basic needs, early childhood continues approximately until the age of 5 or 6. However, according to the  National Association for the Education of Young Children , early childhood also includes infancy. At this stage children are learning through observing, experimenting and communicating with others. Adults supervise and support the development process of the child, which then will lead to the child's autonomy. Also during this stage, a strong emotional bond is created between the child and the care providers. The children also start preschool and kindergarten at this age: and hence their social lives.


Middle childhood begins at around age 7, and ends at around age 9 or 10. [ 18 ]  Together, early and middle childhood are called formative years. In this middle period, children develop socially and mentally. They are at a stage where they make new friends and gain new skills, which will enable them to become more independent and enhance their individuality.
During middle childhood, children enter the school years, where they are presented with a different setting than they are used to. This new setting creates new challenges and faces for children. [ 19 ]  Upon the entrance of school, mental disorders that would normally not be noticed come to light. Many of these disorders include:  autism ,  dyslexia ,  dyscalculia , and  ADHD . [ 20 ] : 303–309    Special education ,  least restrictive environment ,  response to intervention  and  individualized education plans  are all specialized plans to help children with disabilities. [ 20 ] : 310–311


Middle childhood is the time when children begin to understand responsibility and are beginning to be shaped by their peers and parents. Chores and more responsible decisions come at this time, as do social comparison and social play. [ 20 ] : 338   During social play, children learn from and teach each other, often through observation. [ 21 ]


Preadolescence is a stage of human development following early childhood and preceding  adolescence . Preadolescence is commonly defined as ages 9–12, ending with the major onset of puberty, with markers such as  menarche ,  spermarche , and the peak of height velocity occurring. These changes usually occur between ages 11 and 14. It may also be defined as the 2-year period before the major onset of puberty. [ 22 ]  Preadolescence can bring its own challenges and anxieties. Preadolescent children have a different view of the world from younger children in many significant ways. Typically, theirs is a more realistic view of life than the intense, fantasy-oriented world of earliest childhood. Preadolescents have more mature, sensible, realistic thoughts and actions: 'the most "sensible" stage of development...the child is a much  less emotional being  now.' [ 23 ]  Preadolescents may well view human  relationships  differently (e.g. they may notice the flawed, human side of  authority  figures). Alongside that, they may begin to develop a sense of  self - identity , and to have increased feelings of  independence : 'may feel an individual, no longer "just one of the family."' [ 24 ]


Adolescence  is usually determined to be between the onset of puberty and legal adulthood: mostly corresponding to the teenage years (13–19). However,  puberty  usually begins before the teenage years (10—11 for girls and 11—12 for boys). Although biologically a child is a human being between the stages of  birth  and  puberty , [ 1 ] [ 2 ]  adolescents are legally considered children, as they tend to lack adult rights and are still required to attend compulsory schooling in many cultures, though this varies. The onset of adolescence brings about various physical,  psychological  and behavioral changes. The end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood varies by country and by function, and even within a single nation-state or culture there may be different ages at which an individual is considered to be mature enough to be entrusted by society with certain tasks.


During the European  Renaissance , artistic depictions of children increased dramatically, which did not have much effect on the social attitude toward children, however. [ 25 ]


The French historian  Philippe Ariès  argued that during the 1600s, the concept of childhood began to emerge in Europe, [ 26 ]  however other historians like  Nicholas Orme  have challenged this view and argued that childhood has been seen as a separate stage since at least the medieval period. [ 27 ]  Adults saw children as separate beings, innocent and in need of protection and training by the adults around them. The English philosopher  John Locke  was particularly influential in defining this new attitude towards children, especially with regard to his theory of the  tabula rasa , which considered the mind at birth to be a "blank slate". A corollary of this doctrine was that the mind of the child was born blank, and that it was the duty of the parents to imbue the child with correct notions. During the early period of  capitalism , the rise of a large, commercial middle class, mainly in the  Protestant  countries of the  Dutch Republic  and  England , brought about a new family ideology centred around the upbringing of children.  Puritanism  stressed the importance of individual salvation and concern for the spiritual welfare of children. [ 28 ]


The modern notion of childhood with its own autonomy and goals began to emerge during the 18th-century  Enlightenment  and the  Romantic period  that followed it. [ 29 ] [ 30 ]   Jean Jacques Rousseau  formulated the romantic attitude towards children in his famous 1762 novel  Emile: or, On Education . Building on the ideas of  John Locke  and other 17th-century thinkers, Jean-Jaques Rousseau described childhood as a brief period of sanctuary before people encounter the perils and hardships of adulthood. [ 29 ]  Sir  Joshua Reynolds ' extensive children portraiture demonstrated the new enlightened attitudes toward young children. His 1788 painting  The Age of Innocence  emphasizes the innocence and natural grace of the posing child and soon became a public favourite. [ 31 ]


The idea of childhood as a locus of divinity, purity, and innocence is further expounded upon in  William Wordsworth 's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood", the imagery of which he "fashioned from a complex mix of pastoral aesthetics, pantheistic views of divinity, and an idea of spiritual purity based on an Edenic notion of pastoral innocence infused with Neoplatonic notions of reincarnation". [ 30 ]  This Romantic conception of childhood, historian Margaret Reeves suggests, has a longer history than generally recognized, with its roots traceable to similarly imaginative constructions of childhood circulating, for example, in the neo-platonic poetry of seventeenth-century metaphysical poet  Henry Vaughan  (e.g., "The Retreate", 1650; "Childe-hood", 1655). Such views contrasted with the stridently didactic, Calvinist views of infant depravity. [ 32 ]


With the onset of  industrialisation  in England in 1760, the divergence between high-minded romantic ideals of childhood and the reality of the growing magnitude of child exploitation in the workplace, became increasingly apparent. By the late 18th century, British children were specially employed in factories and mines and as  chimney sweeps , [ 33 ]  often working long hours in dangerous jobs for low pay. [ 34 ]  As the century wore on, the contradiction between the conditions on the ground for poor children and the middle-class notion of childhood as a time of simplicity and innocence led to the first campaigns for the imposition of legal protection for children.


British reformers attacked  child labor  from the 1830s onward, bolstered by the horrific descriptions of London street life by  Charles Dickens . [ 35 ]  The campaign eventually led to the  Factory Acts , which mitigated the exploitation of children at the workplace [ 33 ] [ 36 ]


The modern attitude to children emerged by the late 19th century; the Victorian middle and upper classes emphasized the role of the family and the sanctity of the child – an attitude that has remained dominant in Western societies ever since. [ 37 ]  The genre of  children's literature  took off, with a proliferation of humorous, child-oriented books attuned to the child's imagination.  Lewis Carroll 's fantasy  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , published in 1865 in England, was a landmark in the genre; regarded as the first "English masterpiece written for children", its publication opened the "First Golden Age" of children's literature.


The latter half of the 19th century saw the introduction of compulsory state schooling of children across Europe, which decisively removed children from the workplace into schools. [ 38 ] [ 39 ]


The market economy of the 19th century enabled the concept of childhood as a time of fun, happiness, and imagination. Factory-made dolls and doll houses delighted the girls and organized sports and activities were played by the boys. [ 40 ]
The  Boy Scouts  was founded by Sir  Robert Baden-Powell  in 1908, [ 41 ] [ 42 ]  which provided young boys with outdoor activities aiming at developing character, citizenship, and personal fitness qualities. [ 43 ]


In the 20th century,  Philippe Ariès , a French historian specializing in  medieval history , suggested that childhood was not a natural phenomenon, but a creation of society in his 1960 book  Centuries of Childhood . In 1961 he published a study of paintings, gravestones, furniture, and school records, finding that before the 17th century, children were represented as mini-adults.


In 1966, the American philosopher  George Boas  published the book  The Cult of Childhood . Since then, historians have increasingly researched childhood in past times. [ 44 ]


In 2006,  Hugh Cunningham  published the book  Invention of Childhood , looking at British childhood from the year 1000, the  Middle Ages , to what he refers to as the Post War Period of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. [ 45 ]


Childhood evolves and changes as lifestyles change and adult expectations alter. In the modern era, many adults believe that children should not have any worries or work, as life should be happy and trouble-free. Childhood is seen as a mixture of simplicity, innocence, happiness, fun, imagination, and wonder. It is thought of as a time of playing, learning, socializing, exploring, and worrying in a world without much adult interference. [ 29 ] [ 30 ]


A "loss of innocence" is a common concept, and is often seen as an integral part of  coming of age . It is usually thought of as an experience or period in a child's life that widens their awareness of evil, pain or the world around them. This theme is demonstrated in the novels  To Kill a Mockingbird  and  Lord of the Flies . The fictional character  Peter Pan  was the embodiment of a childhood that never ends. [ 46 ] [ 47 ]


Children's health includes the physical, mental and social well-being of children. Maintaining children's health implies offering them healthy foods, insuring they get enough sleep and exercise, and protecting their safety. [ 48 ]  Children in certain parts of the world often suffer from  malnutrition , which is often associated with other conditions, such diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria. [ 49 ]


Child protection, according to UNICEF, refers to "preventing and responding to violence, exploitation and abuse against children – including  commercial sexual exploitation ,  trafficking ,  child labour  and harmful traditional practices, such as  female genital mutilation /cutting and  child marriage ". [ 50 ]  The
 Convention on the Rights of the Child  protects the fundamental rights of children.


Play is essential to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children. [ 51 ]  It offers children opportunities for physical (running, jumping, climbing, etc.), intellectual (social skills, community norms, ethics and general knowledge) and emotional development (empathy, compassion, and friendships). Unstructured play encourages creativity and imagination. Playing and interacting with other children, as well as some adults, provides opportunities for friendships, social interactions, conflicts and resolutions. However, adults tend to (often mistakenly) assume that virtually all children's social activities can be understood as "play" and, furthermore, that children's play activities do not involve much skill or effort. [ 52 ] [ 53 ] [ 54 ] [ 55 ]


It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them. Play allows children to create and explore a world they can master, conquering their fears while practicing adult roles, sometimes in conjunction with other children or adult caregivers. [ 51 ]  Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills. However, when play is controlled by adults, children acquiesce to adult rules and concerns and lose some of the benefits play offers them. This is especially true in developing creativity, leadership, and group skills. [ 51 ]


Play is considered to be very important to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the  United Nations Commission on Human Rights  as a right of every child. [ 11 ]  Children who are being raised in a hurried and pressured style may limit the protective benefits they would gain from child-driven play. [ 51 ]


The initiation of play in a classroom setting allows teachers and students to interact through playfulness associated with a learning experience. Therefore, playfulness aids the interactions between adults and children in a learning environment. “Playful Structure” means to combine informal learning with formal learning to produce an effective learning experience for children at a young age. [ 56 ]


Even though play is considered to be the most important to optimal child development, the environment affects their play and therefore their development. Poor children confront widespread environmental inequities as they experience less social support, and their parents are less responsive and more authoritarian. Children from low income families are less likely to have access to books and computers which would enhance their development. [ 57 ]


Children's street culture refers to the cumulative  culture  created by young children and is sometimes referred to as their  secret world . It is most common in children between the ages of seven and twelve. It is strongest in urban  working class   industrial districts  where children are traditionally free to play out in the streets for long periods without supervision. It is invented and largely sustained by children themselves with little adult interference.


Young children's street culture usually takes place on quiet backstreets and pavements, and along routes that venture out into local  parks ,  playgrounds , scrub and wasteland, and to local shops. It often imposes imaginative status on certain sections of the urban realm (local buildings, kerbs, street objects, etc.). Children designate specific areas that serve as informal meeting and relaxation places (see: Sobel, 2001). An urban area that looks faceless or neglected to an adult may have deep ' spirit of place ' meanings in to children. Since the advent of indoor distractions such as  video games , and  television , concerns have been expressed about the vitality – or even the survival – of children's street culture.


The geographies of childhood involves how (adult) society perceives the idea of childhood, the many ways adult attitudes and behaviors affect children's lives, including the environment which surrounds children and its implications. [ 58 ]


The geographies of childhood is similar in some respects to  children's geographies  which examines the places and spaces in which children live. [ 59 ]


Nature Deficit Disorder, a term coined by  Richard Louv  in his 2005 book  Last Child in the Woods ,  refers to the trend in the United States and Canada towards less time for outdoor play, [ 60 ] [ 61 ]  resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems. [ 62 ]


With increasing use of cellphones, computers, video games and television, children have more reasons to stay inside rather than outdoors exploring. “The average American child spends 44 hours a week with electronic media”. [ 63 ]  Research in 2007 has drawn a correlation between the declining number of  National Park  visits in the U.S. and increasing consumption of electronic media by children. [ 64 ]  The media has accelerated the trend for children's nature disconnection by deemphasizing views of nature, as in Disney films. [ 65 ]


The age at which children are considered responsible for their society-bound actions (e. g. marriage, voting, etc.) has also changed over time, [ 66 ]  and this is reflected in the way they are treated in courts of law. In Roman times, children were regarded as not culpable for crimes, a position later adopted by the Church. In the 19th century, children younger than seven years old were believed incapable of crime. Children from the age of seven forward were considered responsible for their actions. Therefore, they could face criminal charges, be sent to adult prison, and be punished like adults by whipping, branding or hanging. However, courts at the time would consider the offender's age when deliberating sentencing. [ citation needed ]  Minimum employment age and marriage age also vary. The age limit of voluntary/involuntary military service is also disputed at the international level. [ 67 ]


Education, in the general sense, refers to the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and preparing intellectually for mature life. [ 68 ]  Formal education most often takes place through  schooling . A  right to education  has been recognized by some governments. At the global level, Article 13 of the  United Nations ' 1966  International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights  (ICESCR) recognizes the right of everyone to an education. [ 69 ]   Education is compulsory  in most places up to a certain age, but attendance at  school  may not be, with alternative options such as  home-schooling  or  e-learning  being recognized as valid forms of education in certain jurisdictions.


Children in some countries (especially in parts of Africa and Asia) are often kept out of school, or attend only for short periods. Data from  UNICEF  indicate that in 2011, 57 million children were out of school; and more than 20% of African children have never attended primary school or have left without completing primary education. [ 70 ]  According to a UN report,  warfare  is preventing 28 million children worldwide from receiving an education, due to the risk of sexual violence and attacks in schools. [ 71 ]  Other factors that keep children out of school include poverty, child labor, social attitudes, and long distances to school. [ 72 ] [ 73 ]


Social attitudes toward children differ around the world in various cultures and change over time. A 1988 study on European attitudes toward the centrality of children found that Italy was more child-centric and the Netherlands less child-centric, with other countries, such as Austria, Great Britain, Ireland and  West Germany  falling in between. [ 74 ]


In 2013,  child marriage  rates of female children under the age of 18 reached 75% in Niger, 68% in Central African Republic and Chad, 66% in Bangladesh, and 47% in  India . [ 75 ]  According to a 2019  UNICEF  report on child marriage, 37% of females were married before the age of 18 in sub-Saharan Africa, followed by South Asia at 30%. Lower levels were found in Latin America and Caribbean (25%), the Middle East and North Africa (18%), and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (11%), while rates in Western Europe and North America were minimal. [ 76 ]  Child marriage is more prevalent with girls, but also involves boys. A 2018 study in the journal Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies found that, worldwide, 4.5% of males are married before age 18, with the Central African Republic having the highest average rate at 27.9%. [ 77 ]


Before  contraception  became widely available in the 20th century, women had little choice other than  abstinence  or having often many children. In fact, current  population growth  concerns have only become possible with drastically reduced  child mortality  and sustained fertility. In 2017 the global  total fertility rate  was estimated to be 2.37 children per woman, [ 78 ]  adding about 80 million people to the world population per year. In order to measure the total number of children, scientists often prefer the completed cohort fertility at age 50 years (CCF50). [ 78 ]  Although the number of children is also influenced by  cultural norms ,  religion ,  peer pressure  and other social factors, the CCF50 appears to be most heavily dependent on the educational level of women, ranging from 5–8 children in women without education to less than 2 in women with 12 or more years of education. [ 78 ]


Emergencies and conflicts pose detrimental risks to the  health , safety, and well-being of children. There are many different kinds of conflicts and emergencies, e.g.  wars  and  natural disasters . As of 2010 approximately 13 million children are displaced by  armed conflicts  and  violence  around the world. [ 79 ]  Where violent conflicts are the norm, the lives of young children are significantly disrupted and their families have great difficulty in offering the sensitive and consistent care that young children need for their healthy development. [ 79 ]  Studies on the effect of emergencies and conflict on the  physical  and  mental health  of children between birth and 8 years old show that where the disaster is natural, the rate of  PTSD  occurs in anywhere from 3 to 87 percent of affected children. [ 80 ]  However, rates of PTSD for children living in chronic conflict conditions varies from 15 to 50 percent. [ 81 ] [ 82 ]


Child protection  (also called child welfare) is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, abandonment, and neglect. [ 83 ] [ 84 ] [ 85 ] [ 86 ]  It involves identifying signs of potential harm. This includes responding to allegations or suspicions of abuse, providing support and services to protect children, and holding those who have harmed them accountable. [ 87 ]


The primary goal of child protection is to ensure that all children are safe and free from harm or danger. [ 86 ] [ 88 ]  Child protection also works to prevent future harm by creating policies and systems that identify and respond to risks before they lead to harm. [ 89 ]


In order to achieve these goals, research suggests that child protection services should be provided in a  holistic  way. [ 90 ] [ 91 ] [ 92 ]  This means taking into account the social, economic, cultural, psychological, and environmental factors that can contribute to the risk of harm for individual children and their families. Collaboration across sectors and disciplines to create a comprehensive system of support and safety for children is required. [ 93 ] [ 94 ]


It is the responsibility of individuals, organizations, and governments to ensure that children are protected from harm and their rights are respected. [ 95 ]  This includes providing a safe environment for children to grow and develop, protecting them from physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and ensuring they have access to education, healthcare, and resources to fulfill their basic needs. [ 96 ]


"The set of laws, policies, regulations and services needed across all social sectors – especially social welfare, education, health, security and justice – to support prevention and response to protection-related risks. These systems are part of  social protection , and extend beyond it. At the level of prevention, their aim includes supporting and strengthening families to reduce social exclusion, and to lower the risk of separation, violence and exploitation. Responsibilities are often spread across government agencies, with services delivered by local authorities, non-State providers, and community groups, making coordination between sectors and levels, including routine referral systems etc.., a necessary component of effective child protection systems."


Protection of children from  abuse  is considered an important contemporary goal. This includes protecting children from exploitation such as  child labor ,  child trafficking  and  child selling ,  child sexual abuse , including  child prostitution  and  child pornography ,  military use of children , and  child laundering  in illegal  adoptions . There exist several international instruments for these purposes, such as:


Children  are more vulnerable to the  effects of climate change  than adults. The  World Health Organization  estimated that 88% of the existing global burden of  disease  caused by  climate change  affects children under five years of age. [ 99 ]  A  Lancet  review on health and climate change lists children as the worst-affected category by climate change. [ 100 ]  Children under 14 are 44 percent more likely to die from  environmental factors , [ 101 ]  and those in urban areas are disproportionately impacted by lower air quality and overcrowding. [ 102 ]


Children are physically more  vulnerable to climate change  in all its forms. [ 103 ]  Climate change  affects the physical health  of children and their well-being. Prevailing  inequalities , between and within countries, determine how climate change impacts children. [ 104 ]  Children often have no voice in terms of global responses to climate change. [ 103 ]


During the early 17th century in  England , about two-thirds of all children died before the age of four. [ 108 ]  During the  Industrial Revolution , the life expectancy of children increased dramatically. [ 109 ]  This has continued in England, and in the 21st century child mortality rates have fallen across the world. About 12.6 million under-five infants died worldwide in 1990, which declined to 6.6 million in 2012. The infant mortality rate dropped from 90 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990, to 48 in 2012. The highest average infant mortality rates are in sub-Saharan Africa, at 98 deaths per 1,000 live births – over double the world's average. [ 107 ]


A  Chinese kin ,  lineage  or sometimes rendered as  clan , is a patrilineal and patrilocal group of related  Chinese  people with a common  surname  sharing a common ancestor and, in many cases, an  ancestral home .


Chinese kinship tend to be strong in southern China, reinforced by ties to an ancestral village, common property, and often a common spoken  Chinese dialect  unintelligible to people outside the village. Kinship structures tend to be weaker in northern China, with  clan  members that do not usually reside in the same village nor share property.


A  zupu  ( simplified Chinese :  族谱 ;  traditional Chinese :  族譜 ;  pinyin :  zúpǔ ;  Pe̍h-ōe-jī :  Cho̍k-phó͘ ) is a Chinese kin register or  genealogy book , which contains stories of the kin's origins, male lineage and illustrious members. The register is usually updated regularly by the eldest person in the extended family, who hands on this responsibility to the next generation. The "updating" of one's  zupu  ( simplified Chinese :  修族谱 ;  traditional Chinese :  修族譜 ;  pinyin :  xiū zúpǔ ;  Pe̍h-ōe-jī :  Siu cho̍k-phó͘ ) is a very important task in Chinese tradition, and can be traced back thousands of years. After several generations, the local clan lineage will often publish a compendium of these zupus. The overwhelming majority of zupus remain in private hands, though a large number may be found in the  Peking University ,  Shanghai Library ,  Cornell University  and  Tōyō Bunko .


Chinese lineage associations , also  kinship  or  ancestral associations  ( simplified Chinese :  宗族社会 ;  traditional Chinese :  宗族社會 ;  pinyin :  zōngzú shèhuì ;  Pe̍h-ōe-jī :  Chong-cho̍k Siā-hōe  or  simplified Chinese :  宗族协会 ;  traditional Chinese :  宗族協會 ;  pinyin :  zōngzú xiéhuì ;  Pe̍h-ōe-jī :  Chong-cho̍k Hia̍p-hōe ), are a type of  social  relationship institutions found in  Han Chinese  ethnic groups and the fundamental unit of  Chinese ancestral religion . They gather people who share the same  surname  belonging to the same kin, who often have the same geographical origin ( ancestral home ), and therefore the same patron  deities . They are not seen as distinct from the Chinese kin itself, but rather as its corporate form. These institutions and their corporeal manifestations are also known as  lineage churches  or  kinship churches  ( Chinese :  宗族堂 ;  pinyin :  zōngzú táng ;  Pe̍h-ōe-jī :  Chong-cho̍k-tông ), or, mostly on the scholarly level, as  Confucian churches , [ 1 ]  although this term has principally other different meanings.


Chinese kinship associations provide  guanxi  (social network) to members and they build and manage  ancestral shrines  or temples dedicated to the worship of the  progenitors  of the kins as their congregational centers, where they perform  rites  of unity. [ 2 ]


A lineage is a  corporation , in the sense that members feel to belong to the same body, are highly conscious of their group identity, and derive benefits from jointly owned property and shared resources. [ 3 ]  Benefit derives from the surplus income of ancestral shrines and homes, which is reinvested by the managers or shared out in yearly dividends. [ 4 ]  Benefit of belonging to a lineage can also be measured in terms of protection and patronage. [ 4 ]  Ancestral temples also support local schools and engage in  charitable work . [ 5 ]


Different lineages may develop through the opposite processes of fusion and segmentation. [ 6 ]  They can also be dispersed and fragmented into "multi-lineage areas" or concentrated in one place, or "single-lineage area". [ 6 ]


Ancestral temples or shrines are the congregation places of lineage associations, by whom they are built and managed. These temples are devoted to the worship of the  progenitors  of a certain kin, where the kin members meet and perform  rites  of unity and banquets. [ 2 ]


In Imperial times, a  consort kin  was a kin with special status due to its connection with an emperor. Throughout Chinese history, consort kins have exercised great power at various times. There have been several usurpations of power by consorts, the most notable being the  Han dynasty 's  Empress Dowager Lü  ( Chinese :  呂后 ;  pinyin :  Lǚ hòu ), the  Tang dynasty 's  Empress Wu  ( simplified Chinese :  武则天 ;  traditional Chinese :  武則天 ;  pinyin :  Wǔ Zétiān ;  Pe̍h-ōe-jī :  Bú Chek-thian ), and the  Qing dynasty 's  Empress Dowager Cixi  ( Chinese :  慈禧太后 ;  pinyin :  Cíxǐ tàihòu ). The Han dynasty usurper  Wang Mang  was a nephew of the  Grand Empress Dowager Wang . [ citation needed ]


During the  Qing dynasty , the imperial government encouraged Chinese kins to take up some quasi-governmental functions such as those involving social welfare and primary education. [ citation needed ]


In  evolutionary psychology , the  Cinderella effect  describes the phenomenon of a higher incidence of  child abuse  and mistreatment by  stepparents  than biological parents. It takes its name from the  fairy tale  character  Cinderella , a girl who is mistreated by her stepmother and  stepsisters .  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 that are unrelated to one partner. [ 1 ]


In the early 1970s, a theory arose on the connection between stepparents and  child maltreatment . In 1973  forensic psychiatrist  P. D. Scott summarized information on a sample of "fatal battered-baby cases" perpetrated in anger. 15 of the 29 murders he considered, or 52%, were committed by  stepfathers . [ 1 ]  Although initially there was no analysis of this raw data, empirical evidence has since been collected on what is now called the Cinderella effect through official records and reports.


Since the 1970s, scholars have sought data regarding the validity of the Cinderella effect from a variety of sources including official reports of child abuse, clinical data, victim reports, and official homicide data and have found a direct relationship between step-parents and child abuse. [ 2 ]  Studies have concluded that "stepchildren in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States indeed incur greatly elevated risk of child maltreatment of various sorts, especially lethal beatings." [ 3 ]


In circumstances where the family contains both biological children and step-children, studies have found that step-parents generally favor their biological children. In such families, stepchildren were exclusively targeted 9 out of 10 times in one study and in 19 of 22 in another. [ 4 ]  In addition to displaying higher rates of negative behaviors toward stepchildren, stepparents displayed fewer positive behaviors toward stepchildren compared to the biological parents. For example, on average, stepparents invested less in education, played with stepchildren less, and took stepchildren to the doctor less, among other things. [ 5 ]  This discrimination against stepchildren does not align with the typical abuse statistics involving the overall population given, "the following additional facts: (1) when child abuse is detected, it is often found that all the children in the home have been victimized; and (2) stepchildren are almost always the eldest children in the home whereas the general (albeit slight) tendency in families of uniform parentage is for the youngest to be the most frequent victims." [ 3 ]


Evolutionary psychologists   Martin Daly  and  Margo Wilson  propose that the Cinderella effect is a direct consequence of the  modern evolutionary  theory of  inclusive fitness , especially  parental investment theory . They argue that human child rearing is so prolonged and costly that "a parental psychology shaped by natural selection is unlikely to be indiscriminate." [ 6 ]  According to them, "research concerning animal social behavior provides a rationale for expecting parents to be discriminative in their care and affection, and more specifically, to discriminate in favor of their own young." [ 7 ]   Inclusive fitness theory  proposes a selective criterion for the evolution of social traits, where social behavior that is costly to an individual organism can nevertheless emerge when there is a statistical likelihood that significant benefits of that social behavior accrue to (the survival and reproduction of) other organisms whom also carry the social trait (most straightforwardly, accrue to close genetic relatives). Under such conditions, a net overall increase in reproduction of the social trait in future generations can result.


The initial presentation of inclusive fitness theory (in the mid 1960s) focused on creating a mathematical case for the possibility of social evolution, but it also speculated possible mechanisms whereby a social trait could effectively achieve this necessary statistical correlation between its likely bearers. Two possibilities were considered: 1) That a social trait might reliably operate straightforwardly via social context in species where close relatives are usually concentrated in a local home area where they were born ("viscous populations"); 2) That genetic detection mechanisms (" supergenes ") might emerge that go beyond statistical correlations, and reliably detect  actual  genetic relatedness between the social actors using direct "kin recognition". The relative place of these two broad types of social mechanisms has been debated (see  Kin selection  and  Kin recognition ), but many biologists consider "kin recognition" to be an important possible mechanism. Martin Daly and Margo Wilson follow this second mechanism, and expect that parents "discriminate in favor of their own young"; i.e., their  actual  close relatives.


Abundant data on the mistreatment of stepchildren have been collected and interpreted by psychologists Martin Daly and Margo Wilson, who study with an emphasis in Neuroscience and Behavior at  McMaster University .  Their first measure of the validity of the Cinderella effect was based on data from the  American Humane Association  (A.H.A.), an archive of child abuse reports in the United States holding over twenty thousand reports. [ 8 ]  These records led Wilson and Daly to conclude that "a child under three years of age who lived with one genetic parent and one stepparent in the United States in 1976 was about seven times more likely to become a validated child-abuse case in the records than one who dwelt with two genetic parents." [ 9 ]  Their overall findings demonstrate that children residing with stepparents have a higher risk of abuse even when other factors are considered. [ 6 ]


All organisms face trade-offs as to how to invest their time, energy, risk, and other resources, so investment in one domain (e.g.,  parental investment ) generally takes away from their ability to invest in other domains (e.g.  mating effort , growth, or investment in other offspring). [ 10 ]  Investment in non-genetic children therefore reduces an individual's ability to invest in itself or its genetic children, without directly bringing reproductive benefits. Thus, from an  evolutionary biology  perspective, one would not expect organisms to regularly and deliberately care for offspring not their own.


Daly and Wilson point out that  infanticide  is an extreme form of biasing parental investment that is widely practiced in the animal world. [ 11 ]  For example, when an immigrant male lion enters a pride, it is not uncommon for him to kill the cubs fathered by other males. [ 12 ]  Since the pride can only provide support for a limited number of cubs to survive to adulthood, the killing of the cubs in  competition  with the new male's potential offspring increases the chances of his progeny surviving to maturity. [ 12 ]  In addition, the act of infanticide speeds the return to  sexual receptivity  in the females, allowing for the male to father his own offspring in a timelier manner. [ 13 ]  These observations indicate that in other animals, males employ certain measures to ensure that parental investment is geared specifically toward their own offspring. [ 11 ]


Unlike the lion however, humans in a step parenting situation face a more complicated trade-off since they cannot completely disown their partner's offspring from a previous relationship, as they would risk losing sexual access to their partner and any chance of producing potential offspring. Thus, according to Daly and Wilson, step-parental investment can be viewed as mating effort to ensure the possibility of future reproduction with the parent of their stepchild. [ 14 ]  This mating effort hypothesis suggests that humans will tend to invest more in their genetic offspring and invest just enough in their stepchildren. It is from this theoretical framework that Daly and Wilson argue that instances of child abuse towards non-biological offspring should be more frequent than towards biological offspring. [ 14 ]


One would therefore expect greater parental responsiveness towards one's own offspring than towards the offspring of others, and this will result in more positive outcomes and fewer negative outcomes towards one's own children than towards other children in which one is expected to invest (i.e., stepchildren). "If child abuse is a behavioral response influenced by natural selection, then it is more likely to occur when there are reduced  inclusive fitness  payoffs owing to uncertain or low relatedness". [ 15 ]  Owing to these adaptations from natural selection, child abuse is more likely to be committed by stepparents than genetic parents—both are expected to invest heavily in the children, but genetic parents will have greater child-specific parental love that promotes positive care taking and inhibits maltreatment.


Daly and Wilson also note that this parental love can explain why genetic offspring are more immune to lashing out by parents. [ 16 ]  They assert that, "Child-specific parental love is the emotional mechanism that permits people to tolerate—even to rejoice in—those long years of expensive, unreciprocated parental investment". [ 16 ]  They point to a study comparing natural father and stepfather families as support for the notion that stepparents do not view their stepchildren the same as their biological children, and likewise, children do not view their stepparents the same as their biological parents. [ 17 ] [ 18 ]   This study, based on a series of questionnaires which were then subjected to statistical analyses, reports that children are less likely to go to their stepfathers for guidance and that stepfathers rate their stepchildren less positively than do natural fathers. [ 18 ]


Daly and Wilson's reports on the over-representation of stepparents in  child homicide  and abuse statistics support the evolutionary principle of maximizing one's inclusive fitness, formalized under  Hamilton's rule , which helps to explain why humans will preferentially invest in close kin. [ 6 ] [ 19 ] [ 20 ]   Adoption  statistics also substantiate this principle, in that non-kin adoptions represent a minority of worldwide adoptions. [ 11 ]  Research into the high adoption rates of Oceania shows that  childlessness  is the most common reason for adopting and that, in the eleven populations for which data were available, a large majority of adoptions involved a relative with a  coefficient of relatedness  greater than or equal to 0.125 (e.g., genetic cousins). [ 21 ]  It is also observed that parents with both biological and adopted children bias the partitioning of their estates in favor of the biological children, demonstrating again that parental behavior corresponds to the principles of  kin selection . [ 21 ]


In their 1985 Canadian sample, Daly and Wilson classify the frequencies of different living arrangements (two natural parents, one natural parent, one natural parent with one stepparent, or other) according to child age. This was accomplished by administering a randomized telephone survey. [ 6 ]


Records of child abuse from children's aid organizations as well as police reports on runaways and juvenile offenders were then used to determine whether children from step-parental living situations were over-represented as abuse victims when compared to the demographic data gathered from the telephone survey data. The results indicate that the only living situation that has a significant correlation to increased child abuse is one natural parent and one stepparent in the same household. While rates of running away and crime were comparable for children living with stepparents and children of single-parents, abuse rates for children living with stepparents were much higher. [ 6 ]


Daly and Wilson examined several potentially  confounding variables  in their research, including  socioeconomic status , family size, and maternal age at childbirth. However, only minor differences between natural-parent and stepparent families with respect to these factors were found, indicating that none of these are major contributing factors to the observed Cinderella effect. [ 6 ]


Evolutionary psychologists have also suggested that one of the causes of stepchild abuse may be the lack of a parental  attachment bond  that the mother would normally form with her own child. [ 22 ]  An attachment bond will, in general, be more secure if formed before the age of two, and adoption can often disrupt the development of this bond. An infant who is fed by the primary parental figure, usually the mother, and has the mother present during severely physically painful events will have formed a stronger parental attachment bond, and either a consistent omission of the mother from this process or an alteration between two people (the original mother and the adoptive mother) can cause either an insecure attachment or disorganized attachment from the parent to the child. [ 23 ]  As a result, it is highly recommended by most psychologists that the adoptive mother be present very early in the infant's life, preferably immediately after its birth, to avoid attachment disruptions and attachment disorders. [ 24 ]  This theory cannot be a whole explanation for the Cinderella effect, as psychological research has shown that secure attachment bonds can be developed between a parent and adopted child, and the quality of the relationship between parent and child will more often depend on the child's pre-adoption experiences, such as length of time in social care and previous trauma, more than characteristics of the parents. [ 25 ]


It is sometimes argued that this evolutionary psychological account does not explain why the majority of stepparents do not abuse their partners' children, or why a significant minority of genetic parents do abuse their own offspring. However, their argument is based on a misunderstanding: the evolutionary psychological account is that (all else equal) parents will love their own children more than other people's children – it does not argue that stepparents will "want" to abuse their partner's children, or that genetic parenthood is absolute proof against abuse. Under this account, step-parental care is seen as "mating effort" towards the genetic parent, such that most interactions between stepparent and stepchildren will be generally positive or at least neutral, just usually not as positive as interactions between the genetic parent and the child would be. [ 26 ]


Robert Burgess  and Alicia Dais offer an explanatory model for child maltreatment that adds on to the evolutionary psychological theories regarding child maltreatment. Burgess and Dais state that ecological conditions in conjunction with conflicting parent and child personality traits may also play a role in child maltreatment seen in the Cinderella effect. [ 27 ]


Strong support for the Cinderella effect as described by Daly and Wilson comes from a study of unintentional childhood fatal injuries in Australia. [ 28 ]  Tooley et al. follow the argument of Daly and Wilson to extend the Cinderella effect from cases of abuse to incidents of unintentional fatalities. Children are not only vulnerable to abuse by their parents, but they are also dependent on their parents for supervision and protection from a variety of other harms. [ 28 ] [ 29 ]  Given that parental supervision is fundamentally correlated to incidence of unintentional childhood injury as shown by Wadsworth et al. and Peterson & Stern, Tooley et al. posit that selective pressures would favor an inclination towards parental vigilance against threats to offspring well-being. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ]  Tooley et al. further argue that parental vigilance is not as highly engaged in stepparents as genetic parents, therefore placing stepchildren at greater risk for unintentional injury. [ 28 ]


Based on data gathered from the Australia National Coroners' Information System, stepchildren under five years of age are two to fifteen times more likely to experience an unintentional fatal injury, especially drowning, than genetic children. [ 28 ]  Additionally, the study finds that the risks of unintentional fatal injury are not significantly higher for genetic children in single parent homes versus two-parent homes. [ 28 ]  This difference suggests that removing one biological parent from the home does not significantly increase risk to the children, but that adding a non-biological parent to the home results in a drastic increase in the risk of unintentional fatal injury. [ 28 ]  Despite the fact that adding a stepparent to the home increases the available resources in terms of supervision in comparison to a single-parent home, risk of unintentional fatal injury still significantly rises. [ 28 ]  This higher risk of injury for stepchildren can be attributed to the fact that stepparents occupy the same supervisory role as a genetic parent, yet they have a lower intrinsic commitment to protecting the child and therefore are less likely to be adequately vigilant. [ 28 ]  The authors conclude that the Cinderella effect applies not only to purposeful abuse by stepparents, but is also relevant to explaining increased rates of accidental fatalities among stepchildren. [ 28 ]


Furthermore, a study of parental investment behaviors among American men living in  Albuquerque , New Mexico, reveals a trend of increasing financial expenditures on genetic offspring in comparison to step-offspring, which also suggests that parents are less inclined to preserve the well-being of stepchildren. [ 31 ]  The study assesses paternal investment based on four measures: the probability that a child attends college, the probability that the child receives money for college, the total money spent on children, and the amount of time per week spent with children. [ 31 ]  Four different classifications of father-child relationships are examined and compared, including fathers living with their genetic children and stepfathers living with the stepchildren of their current mates. [ 31 ]  Though the study finds a clear trend of increasing investment in genetic children, the data also shows that stepfathers do still invest substantially in stepchildren. [ 31 ]  The authors explain the parental investment exhibited by stepfathers towards stepchildren as possibly motivated by the potential to improve the quality or increase the duration of the man's relationship with the stepchildren's mother. [ 31 ]  This studied corroborates the findings of Lynn White, that stepparents in general provide less  social support  to stepchildren than their genetic children. [ 32 ]


Though the general trend of the data from this study supports the Cinderella effect, Anderson and colleagues note that the observed differences between investment in children and stepchildren might be slightly reduced by a few confounding factors. [ 31 ]  For example, the authors point out that step parenting is a  self-selective  process, and that when all else is equal, men who bond with unrelated children are more likely to become stepfathers, a factor that is likely to be a confounding variable in efforts to study the Cinderella effect. [ 31 ]  Anderson and colleagues also conducted a similar study of  Xhosa  students in South Africa that analyzes the same four classifications of adult-child relationships, and this study offers similar results to those observed among men in Albuquerque. [ 33 ]


Additionally, a study of  Hadza  foragers in  Tanzania  by Marlowe also finds evidence of decreased care provided by men to stepchildren when compared with genetic children. [ 34 ]  The author uses the  Mann-Whitney U-tests  to evaluate most of the observed differences in care exhibited towards children and stepchildren, and finds that Hadza men spend less time with (U=96), communicate less with (U=94.5), nurture less, and never play with their stepchildren. [ 34 ]  Marlowe further argues that any care that is provided towards stepchildren is likely attributable to the man's mating efforts and not parental interest in the well-being of the stepchildren. [ 34 ]


In further support of the Cinderella effect as elaborated by Daly and Wilson, a study conducted in a rural village in  Trinidad  demonstrates that in households containing both genetic children and  stepchildren , fathers devote approximately twice as much time to interaction with genetic offspring in comparison to stepchildren. [ 35 ]  Additionally, this study finds that the duration of the relationship between the stepfather and stepchildren is negatively correlated with the relative proportion of interaction time and positively correlated with the relative proportion of antagonistic interactions between the two. [ 35 ]  As a proportion of total time spent interacting with genetic and stepchildren, stepfathers are shown to have approximately 75 percent more antagonistic interactions with stepchildren. [ 35 ]  In this study, antagonistic interactions are defined as involving physical or verbal combat or an expression of injury. This includes, for example, spanking, screaming, crying, and arguing. The duration of the relationship between genetic fathers and children shows a positive correlation with both relative proportion of interaction time and antagonistic interaction. [ 35 ]  The author argues that these results show that in terms of time invested, men favor their children over stepchildren, and this preference is not attributable to the duration of the adult-child relationship, a factor which is sometimes believed to be a confounding variable in the Cinderella effect. [ 35 ]  Though this study does claim a significant increase in antagonistic behavior between stepparents and stepchildren and therefore supports the Cinderella effect, it also notes that only six percent of all the observed parent-child interactions were considered antagonistic, and that the researchers never noticed any blatant physical child abuse. [ 35 ]


Philosopher of science  David Buller, as a part of his general critique of  evolutionary psychology , [ 36 ]  has reviewed Daly and Wilson's data. He argues that evolutionary psychology (EP) mistakenly attempts to discover human  psychological adaptations  rather than "the evolutionary causes of psychological traits." Buller also argues that Daly and Wilson's 1985 Canadian sample included cases of sexual abuse as well as cases of unintentional omission, such as not buckling a child's seatbelt in the car. Buller asserts that unintentional omission does not fall under the realm of dangerous acts, and rather should be designated "maltreatment". He argues that since sexual abuse is not often accompanied by physical abuse, it is unreasonable to assume that it is motivated by the same kind of psychological mechanism as child homicide. [ 37 ]  Buller also points out that the conclusion that non-biological parents are more likely to abuse children is contradicted by the fact that even if the rate of abuse among stepparents was disproportionate, the lowest rate of child abuse is found among adoptive parents. [ 38 ]  Daly and Wilson respond to Buller's criticism by stating that Buller confuses the empirical statistical findings, which define the Cinderella effect, with the proposed theoretical framework, which offers an evolutionary explanation for the data. [ 39 ]


Buller also argues that Daly and Wilson's findings are inherently biased since they use data from official documents, and the officials collecting that data are trained to take special notice of stepparents versus biological parents. [ 40 ]  Furthermore, Buller states that since Daly and Wilson rely on official reports (such as death certificates) for their data, and that this data is inherently biased against stepparents. [ 40 ]  He cites a  Colorado  study, in which it was found that maltreatment fatalities were more likely to be correctly reported on death certificates when an unrelated individual was the perpetrator rather than when a parent was the perpetrator, suggesting that the data is empirically skewed to support the Cinderella effect. [ 41 ]  According to this study, by Crume et al., when the perpetrator of the murder was a parent, maltreatment was correctly noted on the death certificate only 46 percent of the time. Furthermore, they found that when the perpetrator was an "Other unrelated (including boyfriend)" individual, maltreatment was reported on the death certificate 86 percent of the time, significantly higher than for parents. [ 41 ]  Although these statistics seem to provide evidence of bias against stepparents, further review of the data undermines this conclusion. As Crume et al. and Daly and Wilson note, maltreatment was only likely to be reported on the death certificates 47 percent of the time in the case of "other relatives (including step-parents)," which represents a marginal increase from the amount of parental maltreatment. [ 39 ] [ 41 ]  Therefore, as Daly and Wilson respond to Buller's critique, this does not seem to be a significant source of error in studying the Cinderella effect and does not provide evidence for inherent bias in their data. [ 39 ]


The findings of Daly and Wilson have been called into question by one study of child homicides in Sweden between 1975 and 1995, which found that children living in households with a non-genetic parent were not at an increased risk of homicide when compared to children living with both genetic parents. The study, published in 2000 and conducted by Temrin and colleagues argued that when Daly and Wilson classified homicides according to family situation, they did not account for the genetic relatedness of the parent who actually committed the crime. In the Swedish sample, in two out of the seven homicides with a genetic and non-genetic parent, the offender was actually the genetic parent and thus these homicides do not support Daly and Wilson's definition of the Cinderella effect. [ 42 ]


Daly and Wilson attribute the contrasting findings of the Swedish study to an analytical oversight. Temrin and colleagues neglect to consider the fact that the proportion of children in living situations with a stepparent is not constant for all child age groups, but rather increases with age. After correcting for age differences, the Swedish data set produces results in accordance with the previous findings of Daly and Wilson. The Swedish sample does show, however, decreased risk to children living with a stepparent compared to the North American samples collected by Daly and Wilson, suggesting that there is some degree of cross-cultural variation in the Cinderella effect. [ 3 ]


It has been noted by multiple researchers that child abuse is an intricate issue and is affected by other factors. [ 15 ] [ 42 ] [ 43 ]  Daly and Wilson state, however, that even if evolutionary psychology cannot account for every instance of step-parental abuse, this does not invalidate their empirical findings. [ 39 ]


Burgess and Drais propose that child maltreatment is too complex to be explained fully by genetic relatedness alone and cite other reasons for child maltreatment, such as social factors, ecological factors and child traits such as disability and age. [ 15 ]  However, they also note that these traits are simply indicative, and do not inevitably lead to child maltreatment. [ 15 ]  Temrin and colleagues also suggest that there may be other factors involved with child homicide, such as prior convictions, drug abuse problems, lost custody battles and mental health problems. [ 42 ]