Step Families

Beverly Bliss, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist, Madison, WI

---

Statistics

The Statistics Are Staggering:

One out of two marriages ends in divorce. Sixty percent of second marriages fail, according to the U.S. Census Bureau 66% of marriages and living together situations end in break up, when children are actively involved, according to Stepfamily Foundation statistics. It is predicted that 50% of children in the US will go through a divorce before they are 18. Approximately half of all Americans are currently involved in some form of step relationship. By the year 2000, according to the Census Bureau, more Americans will be living in step families than in nuclear families.

In his 1994 study, "The Changing Character of Stepfamilies," Professor of Sociology Larry L. Bumpass of the University of Wisconsin challenges the common perception that the stepfamily is defined by marriage. His research states that:

• About half of the 60 million children under the age of thirteen in this country are currently living with one biological parent and that parent's current partner.
• Nearly half of all women, not just mothers, are likely to live in a stepfamily relationship, when we include living-together families in our definition of the stepfamily.

Therefore, we have already become a nation of step-relating individuals.

However, most graduate schools of psychiatry, psychology, and social work provide no specific training in dealing with these particular dynamics of stepfamilies. Often, the methods and information appropriate to the nuclear family can be destructive . . . if applied to the highly specific dynamics of the stepfamily system.

According to Elizabeth Carter, ACSW, Family Institute of Westchester, "Our culture provides no guidelines . .. It is our experience that this is one of the most difficult transitions for families to negotiate." Carter continues, "Our cultural forms, rituals and assumptions still relate chiefly to the intact, first marriage family, and the most ordinary event, such as filling out a form or celebrating a holiday, can become a source of acute embarrassment or discomfort for members of remarried families."

GOOD INFO HERE!.....CLICK.....