Essay On Blended Families

In todays time we see a lot of blended families, such as stepfather, stepmother, single parents, also cohabiting relationships. With different structure of family system compared to the two biological parents, how do parents and even children adjust to these changes? Does having joint or sole custody of a child differ? Also which family system is the hardest for parents and children to adapt to? We all know a child, whose parents have been divorced, remarried, are single parents, or have multiple relationships. So how do the children and parents learn to get along with new family members, did they adjust well, or fail? As reported by Brody, Neubaum, and Forehand (1998) one half to two thirds of who divorce will remarry within 3-5 years. Even more research shows that divorce is higher in second marriages compared to first time marriages (Booth & Edwards, 1992). Therefore, its no surprise we see a lot of blended families. Combining a new family with new siblings, and parent’s figures can be a …show more content…
Amato & Keith, 1991, p. 81-87; Dawson, 1991, p. 53; Ferri, 1984; Hetherington & Jodl, 1994, p. 55-79; Zill, 1988, 1994, p. 325-368, p. 97-106). Along with adjusting to new family members, other factors can make the adjustment families go through even harder. Such as found by, Arendell (1986), Clarke-Stewart and Bailey (1989) and Spanier and Thompson (1984) financial problems can impact the children more so towards the resources available to the children. Some women who are sinlge mothers can develop depression, hurting them in how they take care of their children (O’Conner, Hawkins, Dunn, Thorpe, & Golding, in