Megan M. Sweeney of the University of California, Los Angeles wrote the case study “Step- Families And The Emotional Well-Being Of Adolescents” in order to present more structured information regarding the development of step-families within the United States. As per her study, these families are formed either as a married or cohabiting family and usually occurs among women who have sole custody of their children. It is her opinion that such developments are beneficial to the women who enter into it because it adds another parental figure to the child rearing responsibility, giving the child a father figure to look up to or relate to whenever necessary.
However, she also found that children who are raised in step-family situations, although seemingly normal on the outside, carry some sort of maladjustment internally that leads to their poor emotional development, suicidal tendencies, and a host of other psychological ailments. By testing her multiple theoretical explanations within which she expected to explain the various adjustment scenarios a child faces once introduced into a step-family set-up, she has shed some light upon the little known predicaments and complications that are entailed in the raising and development of a stepfamily.
Her study coincides with a topic that I have chosen for discussion in this class that pertains to how a stepfamily develops. Please recall that I believed that we should concentrate on the child’s feelings regarding his stepfamily setup. By asking “how does a stepfamily actually work”, I found that this article provided the answer in the sense that I learned about how the core of the stepfamily is developed and why a stepfamily tends to be designed to function in a certain way in relation to a child’s rearing and parental relationship (Family Matters No. 67, 2004).
Marjorie Smith, decided to cover the topic of non-resident father relationships with their children in her article ” Relationships of Children in Step-families With Their Non-Resident Fathers” for the Australian Institute of Family Studies magazine mentioned above. In the article, she compared the relationship of children with their non-resident fathers based upon the frequency of their visits and step-family relationship scenarios. Her article provides that, as far as the children are concerned, it is not the quantity of the visits with their father that has a direct effect upon their personal development but rather, the quality of the time spent.
She notes that there is a certain difficulty for children who are suddenly thrust into a stepfamily setup as most of the time, the child is not consulted by the parent regarding the remarriage decision. Such scenarios leave a child feeling bothered and bewildered by the new surroundings and persons in their lives so that the child often becomes difficult at the onset. However, the relationship of the child with the biological father does not change in these cases and usually, shows increased signs of improvement between the two parties.
By reading this article, we gain some insight into the question I posed for a topic in our previous homework. We learn that the stepfamily must indeed work harder to become a real family because of the unexpected appearance of a new parental figure for the sake of the other biological parent. Everyone in the new setup is forced to work hard in order to achieve a semblance of a cohesive family. In other words, the relationship of a child with a step-parent is often confusing and difficult until such a time that they find some equal footing to stand upon.
Annual Review Of Sociology
Written by Marilyn Ihinger-Tallman of the Washington State University, the study entitled “Research On Step-Families” takes an in-depth look at what makes a step family a unique form of modern day family. A stepfamily is not something that is joined like a club nor is it like a gym membership. Instead, it is a constantly evolving and developing part of society that is slowly become blurred in definition from a nuclear family due in part to the way it is effectively managed in modern times.
The study also looks at what causes a step-family set up to fail in relation to the difficulties presented when dealing with a “step” relationship. What risks are involved in making it work? What vulnerabilities are presented that create a high risk situation in such a set up? All of these questions and the current progress and problems, even the future hopes for the stepfamily set-up are discussed in detail by the author.
In relation to my chosen discussion topic, this article becomes relevant in terms of of the way that we view the emerging stepfamily trends. By coming to understand how it affects children and the people around them, we come to understand why some stepfamilies can be described as ideal or failures (Divorce Magazine.com, 2008).
In the article “Step Family Roles” by Anne O’Connor, the reader comes to identify the various roles that one takes on when joining a stepfamily. She tries to explain to her readers that there is no successful template for a stepfamily. The only thing to expect when joining a stepfamily is actually, the unexpected. This is because the interaction and decision making processes within the family have yet to be defined for each member of the family. As such, these roles, when properly assigned and developed, becomes the realistic role that each member of the family portrays.
O’Connor takes great pains in order to explain the various roles of a step-parent which is quite different from the role of a biological parent in a child’s life. This often times causes a great deal of frustration on the step-parent’s part and causes conflict between the new husband and wife. Usually, such problems are solved by adjusting expectations of the roles each person has to undertake. After all, a step-parent is still a parent, just without the blood relation and therefore must have some sort of active role in the child’s life that will enable them to bond and create a new family setup.
By defining the roles of the stepfamily members, this article helps to answer my question regarding the role of the step-parent in the child’s life. Does a step-parent really have to work harder on his relationship with the child because he is a replacement parent? How does the step-parenting situation actually work? Most of the answers to the relationship question is clarified in this article.
Dr. James H. Bray is a noted clinical and family psychologist, as well as an associate professor of Family Medicine at Baylor College Of Medicine. His article “Step Families” appears briefly on the website as a look at how a stepfamily can become either real family or a war zone depending upon how the mother and child or father and child, as the case may be, entering into the setup reacts to various situations that soon exist in the stepfamily. In a setup wherein there are 2 sets of stepchildren, the war usually erupts between the parents due to differing parenting styles. Drawing us a picture that although love can exist between the couple, the children will always dictate how the new family shall be set up and run by the end of the day.
He continues to explain the different stepfamily types and how socioeconomic status does not really play a role in tis development. In reality, each stepfamily manages to grow and change depending upon their needs and interaction regarding parenting styles and marriage responsibilities. It is a highly interesting read as he bases his article upon patient interviews and offers us an insight into the fact that every stepfamily has a problem, but that all problems can be worked out provided the members are willing to work on it.
This article gives support to my question regarding the idealism behind creating a new family using the step-family standard of society. How much work does it entail and is such a complicated family setup really advisable in western countries? Why or why not?
Work Cited
- Bray, James H. & Kelly, John. (2008). Stepfamilies. eNotAlone.
- Ihinger-Tallman, Marilyn. (1988). Research on stepfamilies. Annual Review of Sociology, 14, 25-48
- O’Connor, Anne. (2008). Stepfamily roles. Divorce Magazine.com. Web.
- Smith, Marjorie. (2004). Relationships of children in stepfamilies with their non-resident fathers. Article of Family Matters, 67, 28-35.
- Sweeney, Megan M. (2007). Stepfather families and the emotional well-being of adolescents. Journal Of Health And Social Behavior, 48(1), 33-49.