Stepparent Role Research Articles

The Development of a Role Strain Index for Stepparents

The stepparent role has been identified with chronic strain throughout the literature. Although various aspects of role strain have been anecdotally reported, its specific nature and most problematic aspects for stepparents have not been examined empirically. This article reports the initial phases in the development of an instrument that measures the strain thought to be integral to the stepparent role. Descriptive findings point to the importance of role strain in informing our knowledge of and service to stepfamilies.

A Study of Perceptions of the Stepparent Role

This study was designed to test whether there is a lack of social consensus about how stepparents should and will act as parents, and whether individuals in society perceive stepparent roles as similar to or different from the roles of biological and adoptive parents. Two-hundred and forty introductory psychology students were randomly assigned to complete one of three versions (biological parent, adoptive parent, and stepparent) of the Family Role Questionnaire and a demographic instrument. The Family Role Questionnaire consists of 16 vignettes describing a variety of situations calling for some degree of parental behavior. As hypothesized, there was greater variability in subjects' responses to how stepparents, in contrast to biological and adoptive parents, would actually respond and how they should behave in the situations in the vignettes. In addition, respondents thought that stepparents were less obligated and less likely than were biological and adoptive parents to engage in the supportive parental behaviors called for in the situations. Implications for future research and for interventions with members of stepfamilies are discussed.

A comparison of stepfamilies with and without child-focused problems.

Stepfamilies in therapy for a child-focused problem were compared to those without such a problem and not in therapy. Differences were found in reciprocity within the stepparent-stepchild relationship, satisfaction with the stepparent's role, level of stepfamily conflict, and degree of stepfamily expressiveness. Results are discussed in terms of current research and clinical implications.

The stepparent role: potential for disturbances in family functioning.

Stepparents' role-related difficulties in developing stable patterns of feeling, thinking and acting toward their stepchildren are discussed in terms of contradictory pressures on them to act as parent, nonparent, and stepparent; the sharing of role functions of parent with the previous parent in ways not clearly established in the society; weakened social mores (e.g. the incest taboo), and anomalies in role learning opportunities.