The Siders — a mom, dad, grandmother and grandfather accused of child abuse against 16 children — might be a cult within just their family, a psychologist theorized.
“This is a single-family cult,” Daniella Mestyanek Young told local news outlet The Vinton Jackson Courier.
Mestyanek Young is an organizational psychologist and author who has written books on cults, including her experience growing up in the Children of God sect.
A single-family cult is also referred to as a micro-cult in which their belief systems are built around a family unit rather than religious, spiritual or socio-political agendas.
“The motivation can often just be power. Cults are always about exploitation,” Mestyanek Young told the outlet.
Mestyanek Young’s mother was married to a member of the Children of God as a teenager, the outlet reported. She said her mother had a succession of pregnancies, a common sign of cult behavior.
“Isolated, tired, skinny, busy and pregnant,” Mestyanek Young told the Courier.
Ohio ‘House of Horrors’ family: What we know
Elizabeth Siders, 33; Gary Siders Jr., 36; Christina Siders, 66; and Gary Siders Sr., 73, were arrested June 30 on charges of child abuse.
Police discovered Elizabeth Siders and Gary Siders Jr.’s 16 children living in deplorable, unsanitary conditions in their Hamden, Ohio, home.
All four face 16 felony counts of child endangerment and have pleaded not guilty.
The defendants have all requested competency trials.
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