Families have become increasingly diverse and complex, which has made defining family membership more ambiguous. Issues surrounding family identity, belonging, and shared kinship are relevant in many types of complex families, but they are critically important for stepfamilies. In this study the authors examined stepgrandchild-stepgrandparent relationships; specifically, they explored how 27 stepgrandchildren (M age = 20.8) thought and felt about their relationships with 35 skip-generation stepgrandparents (i.e., stepgrandparents who did not help raise stepgrandchildren's parents but who have been in the lives of stepgrandchildren from birth or early childhood). Most stepgrandchild-stepgrandparent relationships (n = 24/35) were described as emotionally close and supportive. Stepgrandchildren who perceived stepgrandparents as fulfilling traditional grandparent roles and whose parents modeled and facilitated warm, close relationships with stepgrandparents were most likely to perceive these intergenerational steprelationships as important. The findings have implications for kinship identification in diverse and complex families.

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Objective To examine whether marital dynamics within remarried couples (in the form of perceived quality and confidence) or perceptions of stepparent–stepchild relationship quality were more strongly associated with stepfamily functioning. Background Stepfamilies are common in the United States, and identifying factors central to healthy stepfamily functioning is an important task. Some stepfamily clinicians contend that steprelationships may be more closely related to overall stepfamily functioning than remarriage quality, although empirical support for this assertion is limited. Method Heterosexual remarried couples (N = 291) responded to online surveys asking about marital quality, marital confidence, stepparent–stepchild relationship quality, and stepfamily functioning (i.e., stepfamily cohesion, expressiveness, and harmony). Data were analyzed using actor–partner interdependence modeling in a structural equation modeling framework. Results Marital dynamics were somewhat more strongly associated with stepfamily functioning than stepparent–stepchild relationship quality, although both were positively associated with stepfamily functioning. Confidence in the future of the marriage had a slightly stronger association with stepfamily functioning than did marital quality. Actor effects were more often statistically associated with stepfamily functioning than were partner effects for both stepparents and biological parents. Conclusion Findings validate a family systems approach to strengthening stepfamily functioning by highlighting the joint and unique contributions of both marital dynamics and stepparent–stepchild relationship quality. Implications Clinicians and educators working with stepfamilies should attend to both promoting positive, emotionally close steprelationships and strong marital bonds and confidence in higher order marriages.

The purpose of this study was to examine the concept of stepchild claiming stepparents as parental figures or as kin. By examining the process of stepchildren claiming stepparents’ as kin, we sought to explore the properties of the concept of stepchild claiming. From in-depth interviews of 26 stepchildren, we proposed a conceptual analysis of stepchild claiming, identifying eight properties of stepchildren claiming stepparents as kin/parents: degree of claiming (identity conviction), degree of intentionality, timing in life, mindfulness/awareness of others, naming, seeking public recognition, using biological parents as benchmarks, and identifying with the stepparent. The results of this study contribute to an understanding of constructed kinship relationships in diverse families.