Children raised by stepparents of different races or cultures

Clearly the word 'culture' for the purpose of this research means the very roots of an individual associated with custom in terms of socialization among individuals and specific traits associated with religious, racial or social groups of people. This includes daily characteristics in terms of the living patterns and minute details of daily living evidenced in different methods of cooking and food choice as well as what is socially acceptable or socially non-acceptable within a society or specific culture. The work of Bronfenbreener proposes the 'Ecological Model', which is an approach in systemic understanding of the family dynamics, which are stated to be the specific systems as follows:

Microsystem:

Mesosystem:

Exosystem:

Macrosystem:

Each of these will be reviewed in this study. It is the interaction of these systems, which take place within the context of families. The structure of a family is that of mother, fathers and children. It is believed that the two-parent family structure is beneficial to children and that conflicts within the family structure specifically marital conflict results in emotional and behavioral problem in the children which has been shown to cause depression and anxiety, physical aggression and intimacy problems. There is a great adjustment to children when a divorce occurs and this is exaberrated by remarriage of one or both of the child's parents. The result of divorces show in the statistics that 90% of parents who are single are women and generally these women are in the lower-income brackets. Outside support comes from friends, neighbors and a type of extended family system. This situation is considered a better situation for a child to develop within than one in which the parents are constantly fighting or one in which a parent is abusive.

While there are benefits to two-parent families comprised by, the parent and a stepparent there are inherent challenges that exist in relation to the child's reaction to the new parent. The stepparent generally is not as close to the child and a struggle exists related to discipline of the child. There are diverse family structures that exist as well such as gay and lesbian couples who are parenting children, adolescent parents and cohabitating parents. Different styles of parenting are reflected in the warm and responsiveness of parents as well as in the control and discipline methods employed.

The 'Authoritarian' parent is one who conveys very little emotional warmth and hold extremely high expectations in terms of their children's behaviors and establish rules without considering the needs of the child. This parenting style demands obedience without question or explanation and does not allow for a 'give-and-take' communication between the parent and child.

The 'Permissive' parenting style is one that creates a home environment characterized by love and support with little standard-setting of expectations in terms of the behavior of their child whom is rarely punished for inappropriate behavior. This parenting-style allows the child to make many decisions for themselves concerning when to eat and when to go to bed.

The 'Uninvolved' parent provides very little emotional support for the child and has few standards or expectations for the child in terms of the child's behavior and ultimately have no interest in the lives of their children due to being immersed in their own problems. Out of each of these parenting styles arises possible conflict when united with another of the parenting styles. There are many aspects to what affects the child of the diverse possibly combinations of step-families in today's society.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The conceptual framework of this research is based upon the sociocultural theory. One of the features of sociocultural theory is that "teaching and learning are social, not individual activities. Learning takes place when novices and experts work together to solve a common problem or produce a common product. (Rogoff, 1991; Tharp & Gallimore, 1988; as cited in Rueda, 1998) in addition, as basis for this research is the work of Epstein (1995) relates that there are 'overlapping spheres of influence' which include the school, family, and community that directly affects child development. Within all three contexts each of these influence and are influenced by each other. From Epstein's framework and an extensive body of empirical research have emerged six types of involvement:

1) Parenting

2) Communicating;

3) Volunteering;

4) Learning at home;

5) Decision making; and 6) Collaborating with community. (Epstein et al., 2003; as cited in Green, 2003)

Green states that: "One of the major tenets of the theory is that greater collaboration between spheres will results in positive benefits for students, parents, and teachers." (Epstein, 2003; Epstein et al., 2003; as cited by Green, 2003) the work of Brofenbrenner (1979) "placed child development in an ecological perspective" in work that combined "aspects of sociology and developmental psychology and laid an enduring foundation for future approaches. The view of the individual's experience was one as "a set of nested structures, each inside the next, like a set of Russian dolls" (Brofenbrenner, 1979; p.22 cited in Strengthening the Family: Implications for International Development, nd) in the initiative to study the development of a human being one must view "within, beyond, and across how the several systems interact. Brofenbrenner's four systems that interlock and shape the development of the individual are those as follows:

One: The Micro-system

At this level the family enters Bronfenbrenner's framework, but only in terms of its interpersonal interactions with the child. It is the level within which a child experiences immediate interactions with other people. At the beginning, the micro-system is the home, involving interactions with only one or two people in the family ("dyadic" or "triadic" interaction). As the child ages, the microsystem is more complex, involving more people - such as in a child-care centre or preschool. Bronfenbrenner noted that as long as increased numbers in a child's micro-system mean more enduring reciprocal relationships, increasing the size of the system will enhance child development." (Strengthening the Family: Implications for International Development, nd)

Two: The Meso-system

Meso-systems are the interrelationships among settings (i.e. The home, a day-care centre, and the schools). The stronger and more diverse the links among settings, the more powerful an influence the resulting systems will be on the child's development. In these interrelationships, the initiatives of the child, and the parents' involvement in linking the home and the school, play roles in determining the quality of the child's meso-system." (Strengthening the Family: Implications for International Development, nd)

Three: The Exo-system

The quality of interrelationships among settings is influenced by forces in which the child does not participate, but which have a direct bearing on parents and other adults who interact with the child. These may include the parental workplace, school boards, social service agencies, and planning commissions." (Strengthening the Family: Implications for International Development, nd)

Four: The Macro-system

Macro-systems are 'blueprints' for interlocking social forces at the macro-level and their interrelationships in shaping human development. They provide the broad ideological and organizational patterns within which the meso- and exo-systems reflect the ecology of human development. Macro-systems are not static, but might change through evolution and revolution. For example, economic recession, war, and technological changes may produce such changes." (Strengthening the Family: Implications for International Development, nd)

CHILDREN RAISED by STEPPARENTS

OF DIFFERENT RACE or CULTURE

LITERATURE REVIEW

The work entitled: "Same-Sex Parenting: Results of Some Studies" states: "With the exception of studies at a few universities with very close connections and conservative Christina denominations, essentially all research studies into same-sex parenting reveal that children of these families develop normally. There is some indication that boys are less sexually adventuresome, and that some girls are more sexually daring. There are also anecdotal accounts of children having to endure ridicule, taunting and harassment from other youth because of their parents' sexual orientation." (Same-Sex Parenting: Results of Some Studies, 1998)

In 1997 three studies conducted in the United States, Britain and the Netherlands were presented at the national meeting of the Society for Research on Child Development and in this study a research psychologist from the University of Virginia, Charlotte Patterson stated: "When you look at a kid with standard psychological assessments, you can't tell who has a lesbian parent and who has a heterosexual parent...That's really the main findings from these studies." (Same-Sex Parenting: Results of Some Studies, 1998) Another study is reported in which Fiona Tasker, research at Birkbeck College in the United Kingdom states in her article published in Clinical Child and Psychology and Psychiatry Journal that: "There are an increasing number of children who are being brought up in lesbian-led families. Research on non-clinical samples of children raised in lesbian-led families formed after parental divorce, together with studies of children raised in families planned by a single lesbian mother or lesbian couple, suggest that growing up in a lesbian-led family does not have negative effects on key developmental outcomes. In many ways family life for children growing up in lesbian-led families is similar to that experienced by children in heterosexual families. In other respects there are important distinctions, such as different types of family forms and the impact of social stigma on the family that may influence how clinicians approach therapeutic work with children in lesbian mother families." (Same-Sex Parenting: Results of Some Studies, 1998) the work of Nigel Barber Ph.D. entitled: "Evolutionary Explanations for Societal Differences in Single Parenthood" presents a new research strategy "designed to bridge the gap between evolutionary psychology that operates from the evolutionary past and social science that is bounded by recent history." State to be core assumptions of Barber's work are the following:

1) That modern societies owe their character to an interaction of hunter-gatherer adaptations with the modern environment;

2) That changes in societies may reflect change in individuals;

3) That historical changes and cross-societal differences are due to the same adaptational mechanisms, and 4) That different social contexts (e.g., social status) modify psychological development through adaptive mechanisms." (Barber, 2005)

The work of Barber states that: "Psychological stress in childhood influences adult sexual psychology and behavior in part because it alters brain development." (Barber, 2005) Specifically found to be a stress that alters the brain structure of the child and has the potential to modify the sexual psychology of male and females is poverty. Additionally stated is that: "Parental divorce is an interesting type of childhood stressor in this context because it is more of a middle-class experience in the U.S. For example, not because poor people enjoy stable marriage, but because they are considerably less likely to wed in the first place." (Barber, 2005)

The work of Barbara Bennett Woodhouse entitled: "Defining Family: Adoption Law and Policy Transracial Adoptions: Are you My Mother: Conceptualizing Children's Identity Rights in Transracial Adoptions" published in the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy, Spring 1995 states that in the U.S.: "Congress enacted the Multiethnic Placement Act (MPA) Originally designed to avoid delay stemming from reluctance to place children in homes with parents of another race or ethnicity, the MPA has become a battleground from competing visions of individual and group identity and has revived longstanding controversies about what role, if any, children's community of origin should play in adoptive placements." (Woodhouse, 2005) Stated to be missing from the debate is "...a coherent schema for articulating children's rights to preservation of their identity in adoption." (Woodhouse, 2005) Woodhouse relates the fact that the needs of a child for nurturing and protection from harm have been long reflected in the legal norms but increasingly recognized in the legal norms is: "...the importance of children's familial, cultural, and national identities." (2005) it is additionally related in the work of Woodhouse that: "Judith Masson and Christine Harrison have described identity as 'an organizing framework which holds the past and present together providing some anticipated shape to future life." (2005)

It has been acknowledged by modern child development scholars that the role of the larger social order and surrounding cultural environment" has a great role in "shaping and defining identity." (Wood house, 2005) in the case of Palmore v. Sidioti, the U.S. Supreme Court stated in the context of a child custody dispute: "...that the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution precludes courts from considering the effects of racial prejudice, no matter how real, in determining the child's best interest. In Palmore, a judge had removed a white child from her mother's custody reasoning that the child would suffer from the stigma of difference in a black community and from hostility to her mother's interracial marriage." (Woodhouse, 2005) Woodhouse additionally states that: "Listening to children's voices suggest that children who are very young experience their sense of self, family, and community in extremely concrete terms. They identify as their family and draw their own identity from the people who take daily care of them and are their psychological parents. As children mature, however, they begin to define themselves in relation not only to their caregivers, but also to a larger society and history. As they begin to integrate more complex understandings of who they are and how they fit into the world, children themselves and the larger society that surrounds them both take on a greater role in defining them. As a result, biological, racial, and cultural identities take on increasing importance in their development." (2005)

The work of Jim Mahoney entitled: "Racism Issues and Multiracial Families: Attacking Racism Before it Defeats Your Child" was presented at a workshop and focuses on pointing the way "...especially for white parents, in attacking racism before it defeats their children of color." (Mahoney, 1995) Mahoney states that there are six tasks for parents of children of color whether they are adopted or stepchildren which are the tasks as follows:

Management of racism: This involves developing a group of behaviors to counteract and neutralize demeaning, and prejudicial behavior directed towards them by persons of another race or ethnic group. Success and survival depend upon management of racism. Considerable energy is invested in this skill.

Understand your child's behavior reflects on his or her group: When a white person fails, the failure is a reflection of that individual. When a person of color fails, that person fails for the entire group. Failures by persons of color reinforce negative expectations of whites.

Make racist behavior work for you and your children by turning it around and making it work for you. Whites will allow other whites, but not persons of color, to be dysfunctional.

Successful persons of color use protective hesitation. Teach this to your children: Persons of color are very careful with interaction with whites, and anyone they do not know intimately. They are careful about who they self-disclose with. They are careful in asking for help. While many whites will offer assistance gladly, others will use this as a way of defeating their interests.

Teach your children, by modeling, to confront racist behavior by individuals in a way that leaves them with their dignity. If this is not done, racism will dominate white's thinking and behavior.

Teach your children, by modeling, to manage their emotions: White individuals will negatively evaluate persons of color who display uncontrolled emotions, and cannot be expected to be empathic and support their interests." (Mahoney, 1995)

Six principles stated by Mahoney for attacking racism which is stated to be adapted from Dickens and Dickens (1991) are listed as follows:

It must be understood that parents model for other parents and children the best method of managing the racist behaviors of other people. In this context the child must be enabled through maintenance of a "health sense of identity and price." (Mahoney, 1995)

The parents must realize that this does not have to be accomplished alone but can be accomplished through garnering support in the school and community.

Allow yourself and your children to recognize racist behavior in action. The first step toward managing racist behavior is allowing yourself to see that behavior for what it is. If you refuse to do so, your children will be handicapped in how to wrestle racism to the ground. You will not grow internally if you refuse to allow yourself to see racist behavior in your life and in the lives of family, friends, providers and school boards. If you refuse this opportunity you are signaling to your children and racist members of your community that you will passively accept racist behavior directed to your children.

How do you recognize racist behavior? Watch the white members in your family, neighborhood, community, school, mental health center, agency, etc. Keep track of which of their behaviors are the same toward both persons of color and whites. Observe who's behavior is different. Teach yourself and your children to pay attention to their stomach. Physical discomfort can tip you off to subtle racist behavior.

As a parent, take a risk and confront dysfunctional racist behavior in yourself. Then try confronting racist behavior in your family, and with a friend. Learn to push back appropriately and with dignity when someone's racist behavior negatively affects you. Dickens & Dickens (1991) state in the corporate world, "You do not need to call attention to the behavior but should instead focus on eliminating the negative consequences of that behavior. You could say something as simple as, 'Before we move on, I would like to add to what has already been said; perhaps all of you did not hear me when I first spoke.' Dickens & dickens add, "Since not everything is worth fighting for and you don't need a reputation for argumentativeness, pick your battles judiciously." (Mahoney, 1995)

Parents need to model and attach language to the dynamics that occur in black-white dynamics as well as between individuals and in groups. It is important to understand the negative attitudes persons of color and whites can have toward each other. Your children need to know about the differences in style between whites and different cultural groups. Point out to your children the negative attitudes i.e., majority to minority, as well as differences in style that may cause conflict and interfere with your child's successful autonomy. It is important for parents to learn and rely on and teach "other ways of knowing." Whites typically do not know any other language than the communication style of the dominant culture. This is generally formal, needs are stated, and compliance is generally expected. There is not, as often, a comparable need to read a situation from the other side. As a result, whites often know "one language." Persons of color and persons of difference need at least two languages. They learn to "read" the body cues and actions of whites or dominant culture individuals. Persons in a minority status hear with a third ear, and learn to intuit a situation and defuse a situation before whites often knew there was one. When conflict arises, persons of color and other minorities."..must reach back to their culture and use their 'reading' skills to understand how whites' negative attitudes get 'played out' via dysfunctional behavior. Once the black-white dynamics or dominant-minority dynamics of the interaction are understood, appropriate responses can be developed to get positive results." (Mahoney, 1995)

Parents must learn to apply effective techniques for managing racist behavior. The following list, originally designed by Dickens & Dickens to assist black managers to make it in the corporate world, presents ways to manage racist behavior. Each strategy lists one or more specific techniques used by black managers to become successful in white organizations." (Mahoney, 1995)

Management of racist behavior is through strategic management of other people. Mahoney states that the parent may "manage through others" and that insensitivity and ignorance is generally to blame so it is important to tell other how they are "expected to behave in any given situation." (Mahoney, 1995) Racist behavior can be managed through use of "organizational norms and values" (Ibid) Racist behavior may also be managed through use of the "communication network" through developing "productive relationships with powerful people in your hierarchy." (Ibid) as the literature is very limited this area, this literature review will look to adoption families of children of different races or cultures for practical advice. In the work of Judith Ashton entitled: "Imperatives for Whites Who Adopt Black Children" it is stated that whites who adopt black children should "have black friends, adults as well as children....[as well as] other interracial families." (2002) it is important to realize "that in matters of face and culture you will learn the most about parenting your child from Black parents and other cultural guides." (Ashton, 2002) Ashton states that one should: "Attend integrated schools. Volunteer in your child's classroom. Be known throughout the school. Your family becomes normalized the more people are used to you." (2002) Other advice given by Ashton includes the following:

Live in an integrated community. Stay in one community so that you and your child don't have to keep starting over. IMPORTANT: Be prepared to move if it means a more affirming environment for your child.

Use Black professional and other services. Find Black babysitters and other family helpers.

Learn how to take good care of your child's skin and hair.

Have Black literature, children's books, periodicals, toys, games, artwork in your home. Learn and share with your children Black history and important current and cultural events. Participate in Black activities in your community (church, community centers, fairs, celebrations). Visit big cities with large African-American populations, museums, theater.

Be clear with yourself and your child as to his/her racial identity. Your child is Black or African-American whether or not s/he has one white parent. Ambivalence -- yours or your child's-- will not foster positive self-esteem. You and your child are minorities. You are forever a minority family.

Be active in social change groups/issues, e.g. affirmative action (teachers, police, firefighters, etc.) Be prepared to -- and do -- speak up when wrongs occur. Remember, your advocacy is not only for your own child but for all children and people of color as well as other oppressed groups. What happens to any Black kid in your school or community happens to your kid.

Be an active anti-racist. Understand why we are racists as long as we benefit from a racist system. Talk about racism. Let your child know through your words and your actions that you are part of the struggle.

Ask for help, and keep learning! Read, talk to people, and be alert to anything that will help you better affirm your child, support his/her development, and become a better anti-racist. Teach what you learn, by example and by sharing what you know with others.

Find ways for your child to learn that she or he is part of the African-American community. Accept and understand that not all of his/her activities will -- or ought to -- include you.

Always know whose side you're on. Do not tolerate racist acts or statements. The hurt and damage are just as great even if the acts or statements are based on ignorance or were not done maliciously.

Learn how to choose your battles. You can't do everything." (Ashton, 2002)

According to the work of Arnold (1998) "More than half the Americans alive today have been, are now, or eventually will be in on or more stepfamily situations during their lives. The work of Cheng entitled: "Under and Beyond Constraints: Resource Allocation to Young Children from Biracial Families" states that: "To the extent that race matters, interracial families offer important but different challenges for our understanding of parental practices and racial stratification. Within these families, parental decisions...must be made through a lens of at least two sets of status, values, and traditions." (Cheng, nd) the work entitled: "Bicultural Families: Meeting the Challenges of Raising Children with Two Cultures" relates a marriage between a Syrian and American. The goals set were for the children of this marriage to feel at home in Syria and America and to enjoy the best of both worlds. Stated is: "Bicultural children have 'an ability to see and be able to deal with the complexity of intergroup relations that is literally in their bones, hearts and minds" according to Joel Crohn, author of Mixed Matches: How to Create Successful Interracial, Interethnic and Interfaith Relationships." (Whitehead, 2002) Additionally stated is: "The number of American families in which the parents are of different races or ethnic groups has nearly doubled since 1980, and it continues to rise. In 2001, about 5% of all married couples were in mixed marriages, compared to 3% in 1980." (Whitehead, 2002) the facts as set out by Robert Suro are as follows:

More than 35% of Hispanics with four-year degrees marry out of their ethnic group. That rate jumps to one in three for Hispanics in the top income bracket." fifth of all married Asian women have chosen a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, while 30% of all married Asians between the ages of 15 and 24 have found a spouse of a different ethnic group.

Rates of out-of-group marriage rates remain low for African-Americans - roughly a third of the rates for Hispanics and Asians. However, the rate among young African-Americans is far higher than average, with about 11% of the 15- to-24-year-olds creating relationships outside the group, compared to just 5% of African-Americans overall" (Whitehead, 2002)

Questions and Challenges include the following:

How should we raise our children?

Should we speak two languages at home or one?

Teach them both religions?

Celebrate the holidays of both cultures?

Are we prepared for our children to look like "the other side" of the family or neither?

Should we give them names acceptable to both cultures or names typical of one or the other? If so, which one?

What kind of education do we want them to have? How will we teach them the things they won't learn in school?

At a more fundamental level, how should we teach them to behave and what methods should we use?" (Whitehead, 2002)

Stated as key in this work that the step parents in bicultural or biracial homes is that they "show their children they value each other's culture." (Whitehead, 2002)

Children raised in stepfamilies are found by research to "have higher deviance rates (e.g. contact with the law, arrests runaways, school discipline, and truancy); report more susceptibility to pressure from friends to engage in deviant behavior; present to clinics more severe behavioral problems; are found by parents to be more difficult to manage and report lower self-concepts." (Center for Law and Social Policy, 1998) Stated additionally is that children that live in stepfamilies during adolescence have lower GPAs, poorer attendance records, and more problems with school authorities than their peers who grow up with both their parents. Children in stepfamilies are also less likely to stay in school continuously, graduate from high school, attend college and graduate from college." (Center for Law and Social Policy, 1998) Other factors noted by the Center for Law and Social Policy in relation to children who live in stepfamilies are those as follows:

Children who live with stepparents during adolescence receive less encouragement and less help with school work than children who live with both natural parents. These differences in parental behavior and supervision, however, appear to account for little of the difference in educational attainment between children from intact and non-intact families.

Children in stepfamilies are often disadvantaged because their relationships with stepparents are characterized by less closeness and greater conflict than parent-child relationships.

Adolescents in stepfamilies experience higher levels of mother-adolescent disagreement, lower levels of mother-adolescent interaction and maternal supervision, and lower levels of socio-emotional and global well-being than children raised in nuclear families." (Center for Law and Social Policy, 1998)

Other characteristics of stepfamily problems are the problems that are presented in differences in disciplinary treatment of children. "Researchers report stepfamilies have more conflict about child-rearing and the financial support of children, less cohesion, ambiguous or disparate role expectations, more stress, and more problems in child-rearing and child adjustment than families in first marriages." (Center for Law and Social Policy, 1998) the first few years are the hardest for children living in a stepfamily. (Ibid) Also identified as a problem is the fact that children often have to change the school they attend and the place they reside after one parent has remarried. Particularly affecting children in stepfamilies is the fact that: "Parents in stepfamilies are less likely to be involved in children's activities involving large time commitments. These types of commitments include such things as volunteering at school or coaching a sports team." (Ibid)

The following facts are also stated by the report of the Center for Law and Social Policy:

At all times in the remarriage children report feeling less close to stepparents than to biological custodial parents.

Stepparents are more disengaged and less authoritative in the parenting of stepchildren than in parenting their own children. This finding remains true even in restabilized stepfamilies. Stepparents are also less authoritative and more disengaged than are nondivorced parents.

Stepparents are far less willing to contribute to college tuition than parents in intact marriages." (Center for Law and Social Policy, 1998)