Children's viewpoint of their stepparents

Abstract

In modern-day, the chance of a child being raised by a stepmother or stepfather keeps increasing. Families are more likely to divorce than it was in earlier days. Moreover, getting children outside wedlock is a common practice and occurrence lately. Divorced parents are commonly remarrying too. While it is not an easy task to figure out the rate of prevalence of the trend, some estimates suggest that in the USA alone, approximately 10% of the two-parent families that exist are either cohabiting or married stepfamilies. The same study indicates that about 25% of children will spend some time with a stepfamily in their life. The increasing stepfamily formations are of concern as far as the wellbeing of children is concerned. Earlier studies already show that children raised in stepfamilies have a lower chance of physical and mental wellbeing compared to their counterparts raised by both biological parents. The study, further, shows that such children raised by stepparents do not show any advantage over those raised by single parents. There are few studies on children's views on their stepparents. Conducting such studies can prove highly complicated. Some of the hurdles one can run into include ethical considerations regarding the collection of data from such vulnerable persons. Nevertheless, the situation in the family will influence whether children accept their stepparents or not. The aspect of whether such parents are considered helpful to the family is also a strong factor of influence.

Introduction

Stepfamilies come up as a result of two consenting adults getting into a marriage relationship when one or both of them have children from another relationship. American children are commonly raised in such a set up (Jensen & Howard, 2015). Demographic studies estimate that a third of all children will live in a stepfamily setup before they turn 18 years. Studies have shown that views from parents and society, in general, have found their way in the stepfamily literature when it comes to transitions by families. Several full publications on remarriage and the literature relating to stepfamily support the above claim (Jensen & Howard, 2015). While such reviews have made a positive contribution in establishing concrete findings, highlighted the methods that are commonly used, and even given direction for similar work in the future, the aspect of stepchildren has not been given proper focus. It is lamentable not to have incorporated the views of stepchildren. The building of a mutually enriching stepchild- parent relationship is at the epicenter of the stability of a stepfamily. Most of the extant literature has only dealt with the step child-parent relationship in a biased fashion that excludes the child from the equation. Similarly, most findings are only drawn from the views of the stepparents. This paper attempts to assess the reviews and studies carried out on children regarding their stepparents.

Review
In a study conducted by Lardier Jr. et al. (2017), to establish the relationship forces between adult stepchildren with their biological parents and the stepparents they live with, the researchers also sought to establish the level of life satisfaction of such adult stepchildren, the quality of marriage and the role of moderating by the gender of the stepparent. The sample comprised 215 adult stepchildren derived from Wave 3 of NSFH. The results from the National Survey of Families show that stepparents and the biological mothers of the adult stepchildren affected the life satisfaction of these children irrespective of the type of stepfamily in question. Moreover, it shows that the effect of the child-parent relationship on the marriage quality of the child in adulthood varies as influenced by the type of stepfamily. In particular, there was a positive co-relationship between the present step mother-child relationship dynamics and the quality of marriage the child in question experiences in adulthood. The converse is also true for children brought up in stepfather homesteads.
According to Cartwright, Farnsworth, and Mobley(2009) studied the narrations of the type of relationship between children and their stepparents. They did so to understand the nature of the relationship in childhood and adolescence and the positive practices by the stepparents or those that were regarded undesirable. They concluded that children brought up in stepfamily setups are more likely to develop emotional behavior problems compared to those brought up by both of their biological parents. The study made use of the Life Stories and Family Transitions. The findings emphasize the critical role the stepparents should play in molding children for the future. In particular, stepparents are encouraged to develop positive relationships before attempting to assume parenting roles. The study suggests that if stepparents took time to understand their stepchildren better and show their acceptance of them, they would have a far-reaching positive import on their lives, even in adulthood.
King Boyd and Thorsen (2015), studied how family characteristics and perceptions, among adolescent children in stepfather units ( N=2, 085), informed by the Theory of Family Systems. The study focused, particularly on how family belonging perceptions relate to the nature of ties among the members of the family. The researchers examined stepfather families because most children living in stepfamily setups live with stepfathers. Many families experience a decline in parenting quality when children approach adolescence. The number of conflicts also tends to increase at such a time. Such developments may become worse in stepfamily relationships. Therefore, there is a need to understand the dynamics that influence children's behavior and the parenting challenges in stepfamilies. The research used information from the 1st Wave of Add Health. They applied structural equation modeling approaches. The later technique is ideal for our case because of the many channels proposed and the latent constructs that underlie in the conceptual model. According to the study, not only the perception of the quality of the stepfather-child relationship but also that of the mother-adolescent, correlated and were associated strongly with the family belonging emotions.
On their part, Jensen and Harris (2017) sought to establish the quality of relationships ranging from between the mother and the child, stepfather and the adolescent child, the hypothesis regarding stepfamily endurance, and the depression levels affecting individuals who lived through these relationships during their adolescence. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Add Health supplied the required data. The researchers made use of information derived from interviews conducted at home, questionnaires from Wave 1, and the in-home interviews of the youth at Wave 3 (2001–2002; n = 15,197, ages 18–26) and Wave 4 between 2008 and 2009 with n=15709. The research age was between 15 and 32 years. A representative sample for the whole nation comprising of 758 children at the adolescent stage was the basis that helped to study the long term and concurrent influence of a stepfather and child, mother and child, the child and the nonresident father and quality of the relationship of the step couple on the level of depression of the stepchild across the development stages. The longitudinal structural equation demonstrates that the quality of the relationship between mother and child and stepfather and child reduces depression in adolescence. It also shows an indirect relationship between the child and the adult that becomes of them
Payton (2018) sought to understand the terms used to address step parents by the children and whether such terms can be used to understand the relationship quality between children and their stepparents. The researcher made use of undergraduate university students from Rowan University (N=67). The researcher used the Quality of Relationship Inventory. He made the usage of the address term, an independent variable. It was measured by the use of the three stages of QRI, i.e., conflict, support and death. An analysis of the variance was conducted three times to find out if there was a significant difference between the address type and the quality of the relationship reported on each scale stage. The results showed that the address types did not affect or signal the type or quality of relationship as reported by stepchildren interviewed. Thus, whereas address type usage is a component in communication stepfamilies, it was found not to be an indicator of the quality of the relationship between the children and their stepparents.
Conclusion
Limited studies are focusing on the viewpoints of children on their stepparents. The situation can be understood easily, given the level of complexity regarding researching such a topic. There are social and ethical limitations that abound. It is not easy to collect authentic data from such vulnerable populations. Since the research has to be confirmed by the stepparent, then it is unlikely that the data provided by the child would be reliable.
Furthermore, it is not easy for children to express the negative aspects of their parents, let alone stepparents. Consequently, this study has targeted adult children who are more likely to volunteer factual information than their adolescent and younger compatriots. The role the stepparent plays in a child's life influences how the child perceives them. Nevertheless, step relationships are driven by more than just the actions at the individual level. The holistic interaction between the focus parties actively plays into the quality of the relationship. The presence of other interested parties such as the biological parents and how they react to the stepparents is also a factor. Many biological parents influence children to reject their stepparents through a process called triangulation.
References
Cartwright, C., Farnsworth, V., & Mobley, V. (2009). Relationships with stepparents in the life stories of young adults of divorce. Family Matters, (82), 30.
Jensen, T. M., & Harris, K. M. (2017). Stepfamily relationship quality and stepchildren's depression in adolescence and adulthood. Emerging Adulthood, 5(3), 191-203.
Jensen, T. M., & Howard, M. O. (2015). Perceived stepparent–child relationship quality: A systematic review of stepchildren's perspectives. Marriage & Family Review, 51(2), 99-153.
King, V., Boyd, L. M., &Thorsen, M. L. (2015). Adolescents' perceptions of family belonging in stepfamilies. Journal of Marriage and Family, 77(3), 761-774.
Lardier Jr, D. T., Van Eeden-Moorefield, B., Nacer, C., Hull, R., & Browning, S. (2017). Relationships between (step) parents and adult (step) children: Explaining influences on life satisfaction and marital quality. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 58(6), 430-446.
Payton, S. R. (2018). An exploration of the quality of the relationship between stepchildren and stepparents based on address term usage. (Master's Thesis; Rowan University).