reconstituted / blended / step families

• statistics of reconstituted / blended / step families

  account for 10% of all families

  in 85%, at least 1 child is from previous marriages

  11% of step families have children from a man's marriage, 4% have children from both sides

  around 1/3rd of marriages involve remarriage for one or both partners

  more divorced men remarry than divorced women

  stepfathers more common than stepmothers as women more likely to be given custody of children
• reasons for patterns in reconstituted / blended / step families

  increased divorce rate

  stepparents are at a greater risk of poverty as there are often more children - stepmothers at the greatest risk
• new right perspective on reconstituted / blended / step families

  less dependance on benefits

  close to nuclear family but would still prefer traditional nuclear family
• functionalist perspective on reconstituted / blended / step families

  most similar to nuclear = social stability

  commitment to marriage remains
• postmodernist perspective on reconstituted / blended / step families

  shows growing individualisation and pick ' n ' mix identities
• ALLAN ET AL - life in stepfamilies


  sense of unity in ' natural ' families, such as shared family history, commitments etc is not necessarily so evident in stepfamileis

  children may feel greater loyalty and closer to natural parents

  may be divisions between children when there are 2 sets of children

  less societal norms about role of step parents = source of conflict

  children may be less willing to accept control and discipline from stepparents

  natural parents may have reservations to what extent a stepparent should be involved in child discipline etc