Clinical Perspectives on Stepfamily Dynamics

Ganong, Lawrence H.; Coleman, Marilyn

doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-7702-1_12

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Finally, there is the possibility of error in the measurement of biological relatedness. For example, children in blended families may refer to their half- or step-siblings as their full biological siblings, although children appear to be aware that they reside in a blended household (Ganong & Coleman, 2016). The results should be interpreted with these cautions in mind.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delinquent by the Dozen: Youth From Larger Families Engage in More Delinquency—Fact or Myth?

Collier

Mears

2022

Crime & Delinquency

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Studies suggest that there is a linear and positive relationship between family size and delinquency. However, questions exist about this assessment. Drawing on prior scholarship and analyses, we revisit and test the family size-delinquency relationship. We also test whether the effect varies by sibling relatedness. Results indicate no consistent or large criminogenic effect of larger families on delinquency and that the relationship is considerably more complicated than what prior work has identified. Some beneficial effects are identified for children in full biological households, some criminogenic effects are identified for children from non-full biological households, and the relationships are curvilinear. Findings underscore the need to revisit research on family size and delinquency and to take into account sibling relatedness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delinquent by the Dozen: Youth From Larger Families Engage in More Delinquency—Fact or Myth?

Collier

Mears

2022

Crime & Delinquency

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“…Consequently, stepfamily stereotypes and myths were left unchecked, if not even perpetuated. Today, an increasing number of family scholars admonish researchers to employ a normative-adaptive perspective, whereby strengths and factors linked to well-being are identified within particular family structures (Ganong & Coleman, 2017). Fortunately, many researchers have been heeding the call.…”

Section: The Stigmatization Of Stepfamiliesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Across the world, stepfamilies are an increasingly common family structure. Stepfamilies form when one or both partners in a committed relationship bring a child or children from a previous relationship (Ganong & Coleman, 2017). Recent national surveys in the United States show that 11% of minor children were living in a married or cohabiting stepfamily household, and 42% of adults had at least one step-relative (Pew Research Center, 2011; Westrick-Payne & Wiborg, 2021).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

It’s time to stop using “stepchild” as a pejorative term in science.

Jensen

2024

Families, Systems, & Health

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“…That choice has important repercussions. The advantage of focusing on continuously married biological parents is that those two “original” parents are still together and, thus, possible issues of gatekeeping between them do not complicate the situation (Ganong & Coleman, 2016). In such a contrast, we would compare a stepfather, who is together with the biological mother of the adult child, to a biological father, who is together with the biological mother of the adult child.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental involvement in youth and closeness to parents during adulthood: Stepparents and biological parents.

Ivanova¹,

Kalmijn

2020

Journal of Family Psychology

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We examined a possible predictor of (step)parent-adult child closeness in adulthood, namely, the frequency of parental involvement in different child-rearing tasks during youth. We expected that although involvement in children's lives would be important for the strength of all intergenerational ties, it would be particularly important for stepparents' closeness with their adult stepchildren. We used the Parents and Children in The Netherlands survey to test our hypotheses. Our analytical sample consisted of the reports of adults (25-45 years old; n ϭ 5,107) about how frequently different types of parents engaged with them in activities related to school, leisure, and personal communication (including reports about 1,361 stepmothers and 1,489 stepfathers). Our results clearly demonstrate that an increase in the frequency of performing a task was associated with more closeness during adulthood, but this effect was significantly stronger in stepparent-child compared to biological parent-child ties. We interpret this finding as stepparents having to "earn" or more explicitly demonstrate their desire for closeness to stepchildren. An interesting gender difference emerged in the position of divorced biological parents, with adult children's closeness to divorced biological fathers also being more contingent on parental involvement, whereas that was not unequivocally the case for divorced biological mothers.

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Clinical Perspectives on Stepfamily Dynamics

Cited by 6 publications

References 57 publications

Delinquent by the Dozen: Youth From Larger Families Engage in More Delinquency—Fact or Myth?

Delinquent by the Dozen: Youth From Larger Families Engage in More Delinquency—Fact or Myth?

It’s time to stop using “stepchild” as a pejorative term in science.

Parental involvement in youth and closeness to parents during adulthood: Stepparents and biological parents.

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