Resilience in Stepfamilies

Journal of Family Psychology

2017

Stepfamilies are an increasingly common family form, marked by distinct challenges, opportunities, and complex networks of dyadic relationships that can transcend single households. There exists a dearth of typological analyses by which constellations of dyadic processes in stepfamilies are analyzed holistically. Factor mixture modeling, a form of latent variable mixture modeling, is employed to identify population heterogeneity with respect to features of mother-child, stepfather-child, nonresident father-child, and stepcouple relationships using a representative sample of 1,182 adolescents in mother-stepfather families with living nonresident fathers from Wave I of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Results favor a four-class factor-mixture solution with class-specific factor covariance matrices. Class 1 (n = 302, 25.5%), the residence-centered pattern, was marked by high-quality residential relationships. Class 2 (n = 307, 26%), the inclusive pattern, was marked by high-quality relationships across all four dyads, with an especially involved nonresident father-child relationship. Class 3 (n = 350, 29.6%), the unhappy couple pattern, was marked by very low stepcouple relationship quality. Class 4 (n = 223, 18.9%), the parent-child disconnection pattern, was marked by distant relationships between youth and all three parental figures. The residence-centered and inclusive patterns encompassed some positive correlations between dyadic relationships, whereas the unhappy couple and parent-child disconnection patterns encompassed some negative correlations between dyadic relationships. The patterns present with differences across socio-demographic and substantive covariates, and highlight important opportunities for the development of new and innovative interventions, particularly to meet the needs of stepfamilies that reflect the parent-child disconnection pattern.

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Constellations of dyadic relationship quality in stepfamilies: A factor mixture model.

Journal of Family Psychology

2017

“…Nearly one‐third of all youth are estimated to reside in a stepfamily household at some point before reaching legal adulthood (Pew Research Center, ). Importantly, stepfamilies often grapple with coparental conflict, disagreements between parents and stepparents on parenting strategies, conflict between youth and new stepparents, declines in parent–child relationship quality, and other challenges (Coleman, Ganong, & Russell, ; Jensen & Shafer, ; Papernow, ). Consequently, youth in stepfamilies are at a heightened risk of experiencing maladjustment across indicators of psychological and behavioral well‐being (Hoffmann, , ; Jeynes, ; Tillman, ).…”

Section: Stepfamily Processes and Youth Adjustmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stepfamily Processes and Youth Adjustment: The Role of Perceived Neighborhood Collective Efficacy

J of Research on Adolesc

2019

Using a representative sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and a recently developed stepfamily‐process typology, this study explores three plausible functions of perceived neighborhood collective efficacy with respect to stepfamily life and youth adjustment: an ability to (1) prevent maladaptive patterns of stepfamily processes, (2) promote stepchildren's adjustment beyond the influence of stepfamily processes, and (3) protect stepchildren's adjustment when faced with maladaptive patterns of stepfamily processes. The results indicate that higher levels of perceived neighborhood collective efficacy are associated with more adaptive stepfamily processes and higher levels of youth self‐esteem over time, net the influence of stepfamily processes.

“…Family processes are proximal facilitators or inhibitors of child adjustment in the context of family transitions [9, 10]. Within the stepfamily literature, relationship quality across key stepfamily dyads has been linked to child adjustment.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research has also shown links between couple relationship quality and adolescent well-being in nuclear families [15]. Moreover, little is known about the extent to which stepfamily processes influence the physical health of adolescents over time in stepfamilies [10]. Generally, family structure and parental affection have been linked to the manifestation of physical symptomology in adolescents [16].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Longitudinal Analysis of Stepfamily Relationship Quality and Adolescent Physical Health

Journal of Adolescent Health

Harris

2017

Purpose Approximately one-third of youth are estimated to live with a biological parent and stepparent before reaching adulthood. Additional research is warranted whereby stepfamily processes are identified that drive variation in youth adjustment, particularly physical health. We examined stepfather-child, mother-child, and stepcouple relationship quality as predictors of levels and changes in adolescent physical health over time. Methods We used a nationally representative sample of 1,233 adolescents living in biological mother-stepfather families from Waves I (1994–1995) and II (1996) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We incorporated measures of stepfather-child, mother-child, and stepcouple relationship quality, as well as adolescent reports of 10 physical health symptoms at Waves I and II. Structural equation modeling was used to examine associations between Wave I stepfamily relationships and adolescent physical symptoms at Waves I and II. We used a zero-inflated negative binomial model to establish the validity of Wave II adolescent physical symptoms as a predictor of an index of diagnosed chronic illnesses by Wave IV (ages 26–32). Results Stepfather-child and mother-child relationship quality were negatively correlated with concurrent levels of adolescent physical symptoms. Stepfather-child relationship quality was negatively associated with change in adolescent physical symptoms over time. Adolescents with higher levels of physical symptoms at Wave II were more likely to report chronic illnesses by adulthood. Conclusions Stepfather-child relationship quality is a robust predictor of adolescent physical health throughout adolescence and is linked to chronic-illness diagnoses in young adulthood. Future research should explore further the mechanisms that underlie this association.