Blended Families

Introduction

Blended families are becoming a more common and normal way of life for many children around the world today. Due to the increase in divorce rates among adults in the United States many children and adults are finding themselves in what is known today as a blended family (stepfamily.org, accessed October 12, 2017). This term takes on many different names and is made up of many different dynamics. Blended families are also called second families, remarried families, and step-families. These families are usually the result of a divorced biological family that now consists of a mother or father, the children of the original marriage, a new partner, and perhaps children of those new partners as well.

This paper will mainly focus on

155, 2002). Most literature today discusses the complexity of step families and the dynamics that make the creation of stability more complex within those families. It was thought that having a new child in a partnership strengthened relationships in blended families however, research suggests that it creates a negative outcome for children with stepsiblings (Thomson & McClanahan, pg. 48, 1994). It was reported that having stepsiblings resulted in a poorer outcome of children who resided with a parent and stepparent and that family complexity often led to lower levels of biological father involvement, lower parental cooperation of biological parents, and a much higher level of child behavior problems (Tach 2011). Further, research shows that it is important for the children in blended families to have a stable relationship with both the stepparents and the biological parents. There is an emphasis placed on the role of the father figure throughout the children’s lives as well as a step-father. The stability of the continued relationship with a child and their biological father ultimately impacts the role of the step-father (Edwards, pg. 159, 2002). Ultimately for the cohesion of households in which blended family children are raised, parents must share in presenting a united front and a clear concise set of

Children who experience the divorce of their biological parents often have a hard time creating social cohesion among their new stepfamilies, stepsiblings, school dynamics, and extracurricular relationships. Following through the different research and results, I could see that children lack a sense of security following the dissolution of a marriage. Those children were self-reported to lack the knowledge of problem solving skills, communication skills, and self confidence that their counterparts who were raised in intact families possessed. This in turn affected their own adult relationships and often the decision on whether to have children of their own. Looking at the blended family dynamic will be beneficial for society on a macro level considering that the majority of today’s children are being raised in blended family environments. It is important to be able to predict the future societal cohesion considering that these children are lacking social skills necessary for successful adult lives. In summary, blended families are less stable and provide a much less fruitful environment for children in which they need to be able to flourish. Blended families provide less structure, attention, and support than of those families that are biologically intact. Sociological research presents evidence that a majority of societal issues stems back to the home