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Stepfamilies

Stepfamilies are a prevalent family form in the United States, with one in three American children living in a stepfamily during their childhood. Stepfamilies represent a broad and complex set of members and circumstances, growing from combinations of first, second, or third (or more) adult cohabitations and/or marriages. The children that adults bring to stepfamilies may come from one or more of their previous relationships or may result from the union of the current parent and stepparent. Children may be living in the stepfamily full time or part time, ranging from regular to no contact with their nonresidential parent. Due to the increasing number of stepfamilies, research on this family form has multiplied, springing from clinicians working with stepfamilies to include scholars from a variety of disciplines, including communication studies, family studies, psychology, sociology, and social work. To follow, this entry describes how stepfamilies are often viewed from a deficit model. The remainder of this entry focuses on stepfamily development and types, stepfamily relationships, and stepfamily boundaries.

Deficit Model

Because of the many complexities of stepfamilies, they are a challenging type of family to understand and study. Lawrence Ganong and Marilyn Coleman pointed out that many clinicians and researchers use what they called a deficit comparison model when studying stepfamilies. This means that step-families are often compared to traditional, intact families and found lacking or problematic.

Cultural and societal stereotypes, especially those related to biological sex and gender, also include how stepfamilies are viewed and understood. For example, the stigma of the wicked stepmother continues to permeate both classical children's tales such as Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Snow White and more modern, contemporary media images of stepfamily life. Not surprisingly, researchers have found that this stigma negatively influences stepmothers' attempts to relate to their stepchildren despite their attempts to challenge the wicked stepmother myth. Stepchildren who identify a stepmother as their primary stepparent often view their stepfamilies as functioning less well than stepchildren who identify a step father as their primary stepparent. The effects of stepfam-ily living on children also depend on the biological sex of the child, although these findings are somewhat less clear. Some researchers have found that boys in stepfamilies have more internalizing and externalizing behavior problems than girls, whereas others have reported that girls have more adjustment problems than boys, but only when living with stepfathers. Clearly, societal, cultural, and gendered beliefs about stepfamilies are likely to influence not only more general attitudes toward stepfamilies as a social unit, but also beliefs about the role of the stepparent and the communication dynamics that emerge among same-sex and cross-sex dyadic partners in the stepfamily system. Again, the deficit model may be in place when stepfamilies are compared to intact families, rather than on their own terms. Many scholars have called for viewing stepfamilies as a unique family form on their own terms and trying to understand their strengths as well as their challenges.

Stepfamily Development and Types

In an effort to understand stepfamily dynamics, researchers and clinicians have advanced a number of developmental models and taxonomies to classify stepfamilies and to examine differences in family functioning and communication among different stepfamily types. For example, Patricia Papernow proposed a seven-stage model of step-family development highly regarded in clinical circles. Stepfamily development includes the (a) fantasy stage characterized by unrealistic and idealized expectations, (b) immersion stage in which challenges of stepfamily life confront expectations, (c) awareness stage in which members attempt to make sense of their confusion, (d) mobilization stage in which members attempt to manage difficulties, (e) action stage where new agreements create a foundation on which to build, (f) contact stage in which positive emotional bonds form, and (g) resolution stage where a more solid stepfamily unit emerges. Papernow argues that seriously troubled stepfamilies typically do not advance beyond the mobilization stage.

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