Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Stepfamilies are common throughout the industrialized world. In the US nearly everyone marries, and about half of the marriages include at least one previously married partner (US Census Bureau 2000). Most divorced people in other western countries also either remarry or cohabit, but at lower rates than in the US. About half of the remarriages involve adults who have children. Because not all remarriages involve parents, remarriages and stepfamily formation are not the same. A stepfamily is a cohabiting or legal union of two adults, at least one of whom has a child or children from previous relationships. According to Fields (2001) , about 17 percent of all children in the US live in a stepfamily household, usually with a stepfather and mother. An estimated 30 percent of children in the US will live in a stepfamily household before they become adults. A large number of children who live primarily with a single mother also visit a remarried or cohabiting father. Although stepfamilies have been common throughout history, they have not been studied until relatively recently. Until past the midpoint of the twentieth century, remarriage was considered the solution to a social problem. When divorce rather than bereavement became the most common precursor to remarriage and stepfamily formation (around 1974), stepfamily formation became viewed as a social problem. This view appeared to ... log in or subscribe to read full text