Abstract
Joint custody arrangements following parental divorce create a specific context for the development of the relationship between stepparents and stepchildren. Using data from the research project Divorce in Flanders (DiF) we test the impor¬ tance of fulltime and parttime co-residence and a limited stepchildrearing role for a good stepparent-stepchild relationship. Spillover effects are considered from both parent-child relationships and relationships between old and new partners. We compare the results for the reported relationship quality by stepparent and stepchild. The results show that the importance of co-residence mainly runs via relationships with and between other family members. There are a lot of spill¬ over effects from relationships within the same household, but not from relation¬ ships between households. The strongest between-household relationship is the one between mothers and stepmothers regarding the stepmother-stepchild rela¬ tionship. There are different indications that there is more competition between the mother and stepmother role than between the father and stepfather role.
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