Remarriage

1
Remarriage Stepfamilies
2
The incomplete institution

• Legal
• Stepparents have few legal rights concerning
  stepchildren
• Very slow changes being made
• Social
• These families must create their own rules and
  shared meanings
• This is difficult work and can take a toll on
  stepfamilies

3
The demography of remarriage

• Nine of ten remarriages now follow divorce, not
  death.
• Until the 1960s, the remarriage rate and divorce
  rate went up and down in parallel.
• Now, only 2/3 of women will remarry after
  divorcing.

4
Percentage of divorced women who remarried and
were in a union within five years
5
Who remarries?

• Men more likely than women to be among remarried.
• Younger women are more likely to remarry than
  those who married later in life.
• Women with three or more children less likely to
  remarry.
• Remarriage more likely among whites than
  Hispanics or African Americans.
• Remarriage rates are lower for poor.
• African Americans put less priority on marriage.
• Hispanics are likely to be Catholic.

6
Divorce rates among the remarried

• Remarriages more likely to end in divorce than
  are first marriages.
• Remarried partners may be self-selected group.
• May be more willing to divorce.
• May be less skilled at finding a partner or
  holding a marriage together.

7
Increasing cohabitation

• Cohabitation rates for divorced people have
  risen.
• Increase in cohabitation has more than made up
  for the low remarriage rates among divorced.
• Substituting cohabitation for remarriage.
• Children from previous marriages are often
  present.

8
The new extended family

• Western nations have taken for granted that a
  conjugal family lives in the same household until
  children are grown.
• Childbearing outside marriage, increase in
  divorces, and remarriage have made this less
  likely.
• Divorce splits conjugal unit into two households.
• Remarriage may bring multitude of ties across
  households.

9
Households

• Made up of people who physically live in the
  household.
• Stepfamily as household contains a parent with
  children from a previous union and that parents
  current partner.
• Can be even more complex if more than one divorce
  has occurred.
• The household is not as useful a concept for
  studying todays complex families.

10
Remarriage chains

• Remarriage Chains Paths that link individuals
  across households through the ties of disrupted
  unions and new unions.
• These serve as support and exchange networks.
• System depends on cooperation of all involved and
  can be easily disrupted.

11
Bruces stepfamily
12
Building stepfamilies

• After divorce, single parents and their children
  develop coping skills to live differently.
• When in walks the stepparent, these change.
• There is often difficulty adjusting to this new
  person.

13
The transitional period

• The first 2 to 4 years.
• Stepparent goes from being affinity-seeker or
  polite outsider to being warm friend.
• Young children usually accept stepparent.
• Older children and adolescents may resist and
  distance themselves.

14
The stepparent as polite outsider

• Doesnt usually try to discipline.
• Refrains from acting like parent.
• Seeks to be a warm and affectionate role model
  figure.
• Usually called by his/her first name.

15
Adjustment of the stepchildren

• Increased behavior problems may occur at the
  beginning.
• Key factor is the age of the child when
  stepparent joins family.
• Early years easier to establish a more
  parent-like relationship.
• Older children are more likely to resist a
  parent-like relationship.
• Research suggests that the most difficult time to
  start a stepfamily is when children are in early
  adolescence.

16
Boundary ambiguity

• Task of remarried couple is to create a shared
  conception of family.
• Boundary ambiguity a situation in which people
  are uncertain about who is in their family and
  what roles these people play.

17
The stabilization period

• The stepparent moves toward the role of intimate
  outsider, which is somewhere between parent and
  trusted friend.
• Stepparent role includes
• Warmth toward and support of the stepchildren.
• Little disciplining of the stepchildren.
• Support for the biological parent.
• Stepfathers in general tend to be less involved
  than biological fathers.

18
Stepmother and stepfather differences

• Being a stepmother can be harder than being a
  stepfather.
• In typical remarriage chains today, children live
  with mother and stepfather.
• Typical stepmother must establish relationship
  during visits.
• Stepfathers compete with non-custodial fathers
  who may not see children very often.
• Often fill a vacuum left by departed biological
  father.
• May hold to a lower standard than stepmothers.
• Easier for children to accept two father figures
  than two mother figures.

19
The effects of remarriage on children

• Income is raised.
• Another adult is there to help.
• Behavior problems
• Age at leaving home

20
Behavior problems

• Children in single-parent or remarried families
  do not do as well as those in non-divorced
  households
• 25-30 of single-parent and divorced households
  reported behavior problems, while only 10 of
  non-divorced households reported behavior
  problems with children.
• 20 of children in stepfamilies have behavior
  problems compared to 10 of children in
  non-divorced families.

21
Age at leaving home

• Children in stepfamilies families are likely to
  leave home earlier than children in
  first-marriage families.
• Especially prominent among girls.
• Leave to marry and establish their own families.

22
Three themes

• Marriage is more fragile.
• Created kinship is becoming more frequent.
• Childrens lives have been altered.

23
The primacy of the private family

• The triumph of the private family is that it does
  still exist, regardless of changes in reasons for
  divorce throughout time.
• The changing nature of marriage has also been an
  advance for women.
• However, no longer have economic protection they
  had before.
• A contradiction exists - the law assumes that men
  and women are economic equals, when that is not
  the case.
• Womens wages have increased, but they are still
  not the same.
• Women, as single parents, usually suffer a steep
  drop in standard of living.

24
New kinship ties

• Cohabitation, divorce, non-marital childbearing,
  and remarriage are alternating kinship in two
  fundamental ways.
• Breaking the correspondence between family and
  household.
• Increasing the importance of created kinship.
• Ties that people actively construct as opposed to
  those they acquire at birth or first marriage.

25
The impact on children

• Most children who experience some disruption or
  lack of well-being through divorce or remarriage
  do not carry lasting effects.
• There is not enough research to draw a definitive
  conclusion.
• At this point, evidence suggests that divorce and
  stepfamilies do not inevitably scar children.

26
Some housekeeping

• Response paper 3 http//staff.washington.edu/walt
  one/family/Response3.pdf
• Changes to syllabus http//staff.washington.edu/wa
  ltone/family/Syllabus352.pdf
• Readings for next week.
• No preparatory writing 2, will do in-class
  exercises instead.
• Response paper 3 worth more, final exam worth
  less.
• Changes to final exam.