Stepchildren Claiming Stepparents

Ganong, Lawrence H.; Coleman, Marilyn; Chapman, Ashton; Jamison, Tyler B.

doi:10.1177/0192513x17725878

Cited by 13 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…We assert that strengthening parent–child and stepparent–child relationships should continue to be an important goal of clergy or family practitioners working with families in conflict, whether or not family members differ in religious affiliation or frequency of attendance. Rather than focusing on cross‐generational rifts or insider–outsider challenges in stepfamilies that arise out of differences in religious practice or beliefs, counseling should focus instead on sources of interpersonal connections between generations and individuals within the family, the ways in which children and parents identify with each other, and any turning points in the course of family relationships that can lead to positive child–parent or stepchild–stepparent relationships (Braithwaite et al, ; Ganong, Coleman, Chapman, & Jamison, ; Papernow, ). These approaches to working with families might enhance existing father–child affectual solidarity in biological families and strengthen the weaker intergenerational affectual solidarity found in stepfamilies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergenerational Affectual Solidarity in Biological and Step Relations: The Moderating Role of Religious Similarity

et al. 2019

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Objective To examine whether intergenerational religious concordance moderates the gap in affectual solidarity between adult children and their biological versus stepparents over an 11‐year period. Background Previous studies have examined the impact of religion on intergenerational relations in intact, nondivorced families. However, few researchers have explored similar questions regarding the impact of religion on intergenerational relations in stepfamilies. Method Using latent growth curve models, we assessed concordance–discordance in religious affiliation, religious attendance, and religious intensity. Data derived from four waves of the Longitudinal Study of Generations between 1994 and 2005 consisting of 238 mother–child dyads and 148 father–child dyads, each group consisting of both biological and step relations. Results Over the period studied, children had consistently lower affectual solidarity with their stepmothers and stepfathers than with their biological mothers and fathers. Tests of interactions revealed that parent–child concordance in religious affiliation, but not in religious attendance or religious intensity, was associated with a smaller difference in affectual solidarity at baseline and over time between children and their steppparents versus biological parents. Conclusion Parent–child religious affiliation concordance was more closely associated with an increasing intergenerational affectual solidarity in biological parent–child relations than in stepparent–child relations. Implications Differences in religious practice or beliefs need not be a major point of intervention for helping professionals working to avert or bridge cross‐generational rifts or insider–outsider challenges in stepfamilies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergenerational Affectual Solidarity in Biological and Step Relations: The Moderating Role of Religious Similarity

et al. 2019

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“…The same distinction was made by stepmothers who describe their role as caring, providing, friend, or mentor-a "mothering role"-but not a mother (Erera-Weatherley, 1996;Svare et al, 2004;Weaver & Coleman, 2005). In that sense, claiming carries an indication of kinship (Blyaert et al, 2016;Ganong et al, 2018), which involves certain norms and obligations that go beyond feelings of affection. For some stepparents, this would even be a reason not to perceive their stepchildren as their own, as they would consider the children's biological parents to have unique (formal and informal) rights and responsibilities (Blyaert et al, 2016).…”

Section: Stepparents' "Claiming"mentioning

confidence: 96%

Like My Own Children: A Quantitative Study of Stepparents Claiming Adult Stepchildren

Houdt

2021

Journal of Family Issues

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The different dimensions of parenthood—for example, biological relatedness, child-rearing, co-residence—are disconnected in increasingly many families as the result of upward trends in separation and repartnering. By studying stepparents’ claiming (i.e., stepparents perceiving their adult stepchildren as their own), this study provides insight into how people define kinship and adds a new dimension to knowledge about stepfamilies. Using the Ouders en Kinderen in Nederland (OKiN) survey data, this study (a) provides nationally representative estimates of how Dutch stepmothers and -fathers ( N = 3,327) perceive their adult stepchildren and (b) shows how the context (i.e., co-residence, duration, timing, marriage) and relations to biological children relate to stepparents’ claiming. The more similar the context is to “traditional” parent–child relations, the more stepparents claim their stepchildren. As opposed to the expectation that relations to one’s own biological children would serve as an important reference, having biological children from either a previous or current relationship has little explanatory power.

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“…In describing the dynamic development of stepparent–stepchild relationships, family researchers have looked beyond the notions of closeness, family belonging, and mattering in order to capture the challenging process that sometimes accompany the formation and maintenance of stepparent–stepchild relationships, which are often involuntary and lack genetic connections or even legal relationship in many cases. In particular, the construct of stepfamily claiming (Ganong et al, 2018; Marsiglio, 2004) captures the intentional process of identifying the new stepfamily member as a kin and the accompanying obligations that comes with the kin relationship. Marsiglio (2004) defined stepfather claiming as including “emotional, psychological, practical, and often symbolic aspects of acting toward and thinking about stepchildren as their own” (p. 23).…”

Section: Stepchild Claimingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent qualitative study of 26 young adult stepchildren in the United States who, in interviews, had claimed their stepparent as kin (Ganong et al, 2018) identified eight themes associated with stepchild claiming: 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. Given the potential cultural and linguistic barriers between foreign stepmothers and Korean stepchildren, and given the stigmatized status of multicultural families in Korea, we looked to stepchild claiming as a potentially useful organizing concept for understanding the nature of kinship development among Korean adolescents in cross-border blended families.…”

Section: Stepchild Claimingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Becoming Multicultural: Kinship Development of Korean Adolescents With Asian Cross-Border Marriage Migrant Stepmothers

Kim

Okazaki

2020

Journal of Adolescent Research

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In Korea, more than one-third of cross-border marriages are remarriages for at least one spouse, yet little is known about the experiences of Korean adolescents who enter into a blended multicultural family through their father’s remarriages. The current study examined the experiences of 10 Korean (seven female) adolescents ( Mage = 15.9 years) primarily from low-income families with Korean fathers and non-Korean stepmothers using content analysis of in-depth interviews with adolescents, supplemented with field observations at after-school mentoring program. The analysis suggested that many of the Korean adolescents gained a new sense of identity as a member of a multicultural family primarily through new kinship bonds they experienced through the intimate labor of caretaking for their new half-siblings. Many of the adolescents had grown up without close kinship ties to their biological parents, thus the introduction of foreign stepmothers to the family provided opportunities for the adolescents to claim them as kins despite language and cultural barriers. At the same time, the adolescents also experienced challenges and tensions that often accompany new blended family formation. These results have implications for understanding formations of kinship and new cultural identity in blended families across borders.

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Stepchildren Claiming Stepparents

Cited by 13 publications

References 24 publications

Intergenerational Affectual Solidarity in Biological and Step Relations: The Moderating Role of Religious Similarity

Intergenerational Affectual Solidarity in Biological and Step Relations: The Moderating Role of Religious Similarity

Like My Own Children: A Quantitative Study of Stepparents Claiming Adult Stepchildren

Becoming Multicultural: Kinship Development of Korean Adolescents With Asian Cross-Border Marriage Migrant Stepmothers

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