Reconsituted/Step Families

• Reconstituted families account for 10% of all families with dependent children in Britain
• Ferri & Smith found stepfamilies are very similar to first families such as childcare or division of labour, but are also at greater risk of poverty
• Allan & Crow say stepfamilies have issues of divided loyalties such as contact to non-resident parents which can cause tension
• McCarthy et al point to diversity among stepfamilies, so tensions are no different to those experienced by other family types