Stepfather Child Relationships

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Stepfather Child Relationships
With stepfamilies becoming more commonplace in American households, it is necessary to understand the relationship between the stepfather and the child. In an article from 2009, it was stated that one-third of births occur to unmarried mothers and around half of all marriages are likely to end in divorce (King, 2009). Statistics show fifty percent of American children will live in a household separate from their biological father, and thirty-three percent of children, before the age of eighteen, will spend some portion of their life living in a stepfamily home (King, 2006). Starting in the 1980s, researchers began to study stepfamilies with more interest as the precursor of remarriage shifted from the death …show more content…

The reader will also learn how the age of the child, the gender of the child, and the type of relationships the child has with their biological parents factor into the relationship between the child and stepfather.
Background
According to Jensen and Shafer, “a stepfamily is formed when a parent forms a relationship, either through cohabitation or remarriage, with a partner who is not the biological mother or father of their child or children” (2013, p. 127). Cohabitation occurs when two people enter into a long-term relationship and live together as if they are in a marriage. Many roles occur within a stepfamily. The role of the biological father, who no longer resides in the same home as his child, is considered a nonresident father. The term stepfather can be applied to any male who marries or is in a long-term live-in relationship with the child’s biological mother. While similarly, a stepmother is a female who marries or is in a long-term live-in relationship with a child’s biological …show more content…

Jensen and Shafer observed there were two outcomes when the child has a poor relationship with their nonresident father (2013). The first was an increase in the child’s relationship with their stepfather from seeking out a fatherly role model (Jensen & Shafer, 2013). The second was a decrease in the child’s relationship with their stepfather because of the child’s uncertainty and general distrust of all males in their life who try to fill the role of father (Jensen & Shafer, 2013). King’s research also concluded that the entrance of a stepfather does not affect the child’s relationship with their nonresident father

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