Blended Families Essay

Cartwright (2010) open that couples who re-marry after break up undersurface often be led to that decision by the need for an intimate relationship and the benefits they realize from that relationship. The need for financial means also brought some to the decision that they would cohabitate in front re-marrying. Cartwright also came to the conclusion that while a lot of the participants in the speculate were aw be of the possible difficulties of becoming a immingle family, most of them did non talk to one another virtually certain p benting issues such as discipline and rules. Most of the participants also did not discuss how they would handle this channel for the children touch in the two families that were blending. Cartwright says that these findings supported earlier enquiry that suggested that couples who argon blending their families often avoid talking about difficult issues so as to avoid conflict. What Percentage of Households Have Blended Families?Studies have sh own that about 9% of married couple households and 11.5% of households where the p arnts be living together except not married, have stepchildren who live in the home. (T all(prenominal)man & Teadrow, 2008) A survey done, called the HILDA survey, showed that 13% of households in the third wave of the survey, have stepchildren that either live in the home or do not and on some occasion two. A spaciousitudinal study was done and indicated that out of the 1265 throng involved in taking the study, 18.6% of them had lived in a stepfamily between the ages of 6 and 16 years old. This study included participants where the household was either remarried or cohabitating. (Nicholson, Fergusson, & Horwood, 1999). numerous stepfamilies find challenges that make it precise difficult to have normal available interactions amongst its members. What Areas of Concern Are There for Children in Blended Families?Through research studies on blended families there seems to be a much greater risk of negative outcomes for children that are part of a blended family, as opposed to other children aroundthem who are from a first clip marriage. (Amato, 2000 Bray, 1999 Hetherington & Kelly, 2002). When researchers have done studies on stepfamilies post-remarriage, they have found out very little about how the couple prepares themselves and their families before they re-marry or move in together to live as a whole family unit. There are a couple cen authoritatives. A study done in 1989 in the US was conducted specifically to find out what couples do to prepare themselves and their families for a re-marriage. (Ganong & Coleman, 1989).More recently than that a study was done in Britain that questioned both the mothers and the step gos to find out what it was they did, if anything, to prepare prior to the re-marriage. (Smith & Robertson, 2008) The findings were that many re-married quickly and did not discuss what each others role would be when it came to heightening. (Ganong & Colema n, 1989 Robertson, 2008 Smith, 2008). licence appeared that showed there was very little, if any, economic aid given to the children to help them with the transition into this bare-assed family life. (Robertson, 2008). How Common is Re-Marriage?Research shows that almost 20% of Americans are divorced and remarried. It has turn over increasingly common over prison term. Stepfamilies are becoming the fastest growing family unit. (Berger, 1995 Walsh, 2003b). Studies estimate that one in every two couples in the unify States will divorce (Derma, 1999). What Are the effective Ramifications of a Blended Family?Legal battles can become very expensive and are very complicated. Centuries ago, it was tell that the children belonged to the father and so when a marriage ended, the children would stay with the father (Knibiehler, 1995). This was receivable large in part to the father having to financially support, educate and hold dear his children much like the father figure of Chris tian Mythology (Friedman, 1995). Around the time of the Industrial Revolution came domesticity. With that came the idea and emphasis that a childs need to be emotionally nurtured was more than important. That did not shift the fathers legal obligations to financially support, educate and protect his children. With that, thefathers role became one more of support while the mothers role took the lead as the one who provided the children with emotional nurturance (Jacob, 1988).The one exception to the rule that the mother should have custody of the children, was that she be proven to be the get under ones skin for the end of the marriage. If that could be proven, she risked losing her property and her children. Around 1975, the idea of no- switch divorces was get-go to have an impact on legislation (Fogarty, 2001). While the arguments for this type of divorce were mostly moral ones, the leaders of politics and religion were arguing that we had unconnected what once held our socie ty together. Another big part of no fault divorce proceedings that nobody gave much attention to for a long period of time, was how violence or abuse within the marriage and family should postulate the outcome. Very slowly did family courts begin to take in to consideration the inconceivable behaviors towards spouses and children. Then they began to make decisions based more on those findings. What Things Help a Blended Family to Be Successful?According to Visher, Visher & Pasley, 2003, becoming a blended family is a very complicated process that involves transitioning from ones prior life and household to a whole new life and perchance household where things may be very different than before. There are many things to be thought about when choosing to blend a family. several(prenominal)(prenominal) things must be examined since they may influence how the new family blends together. It is important to make love the experiences of the previous marriage, for both parties. It is al so important to know how the continued finish up with the previous spouse is handled.Also important is how each spouse differs when it comes to in the flesh(predicate) maturity, the experiences each has had by dint ofout their lives and what social status they hold. Finally, knowing what each accessory considers the norm and what each ones expectations are (Swenson, 1997). Understanding how to help families of remarriage to blend masteryfully is an important outline for research, intervention and prevention efforts within blended families (Von nerve centre & Schuster, 2000). Using this approach helps to guide families when they face challenges or difficult quantify within their blended family (Hawley, 2000Walsh, 1998b, 2003a).When talking about resilience in a blended family, a lot of things are brought into the mix. Risk factors such as stressful events or bad conditions are weighed against protective factors such a family and community support to help blended families and t heir children to be successful in working through the hard times (Norman, 2000). According to McCubbin and McCubbin, (1988), there are certain dimensions, characteristics and features that must be insureed at in order to help a blended family be more resilient to the hard times. They look at resistance to rupture in the event of a change and how well a person adapts in a critical situation.Walsh (1996) came up with the idea of relational resilience. theoretical accounts have been created to test these factors. The first model, the pre-crisis ABCX model looks at the A (stressor), B (resource), and C (definition of the stressor) which help families protect themselves and get through crisis. Second are the models that focus on before and after crisis factors and the FAAR Model that was developed by McCubbin and Patterson (McCubbin et al., 1996). Last is the Typology Model of Family Adjustment and Adaptation, developed by McCubbin and McCubbin (McCubbin et al., 1996). This model focu ses on what patterns are used in the way the family functions and what each persons role is in adjusting and adapting during visitation or crisis.According to Walsh (1998b), making a blended family successful and helping them to stay together can be accomplished by encouraging the familys belief system, a accessory community, communication with one another and support within the family structure, acknowledging that some adversity it very normal and standing together as a family and believeing that you can achieve what you set out to accomplish. How is Attachment in Stepfamilies Affected?Bowlby (1973) has found that while there is an endless amount of research done on attachment, very little of that has been done on stepfamilies. He found that the disruption of bonds that a child has may make it very hard to draw desexualize attachments otherwise in life, therefore, leading to possible psychological disorders. insulation from a parent and conflict with a new stepparent maycause problems with attachment and adjusting in the future (Henry & Holmes 1998). These types of situations often involve some chance variable of threat (whether it be real or not) making one of the parents more unavailable (Kobak 1999).There was some speculation that a child macrocosm raised in a stepfamily would for sure have less secure attachments than those raised by their biological parents still together. They did state that insecurities may be part of the stress of divorce and remarriage (Love and Murdock 2004).As stated by Robert S. Feldman (2011), more than 5 million couples who are each others second marriages have at least one child that is a stepchild. He states that often times, a childs role is unclear and they are not sure of what is expected of them. Children may not be sure what their responsibilities are as a part of the new family or how they should treat their new parent or siblings. Feldman also states that blending into a new family seems to be easier for children that are school age as opposed to teenagers. He states that it is due to several different things. The familys financial situation usually improves with a remarriage and the accompaniment of a second income. There are also more mass in the family to share chores and responsibilities with as well as more people to have a social relationship with (Greene, Anderson, & Hetherington, 2003 Hetherington & Elmore, 2003).Though there is not much research on blended families and every aspect of the changes, challenges and successs, it is clear that raising a blended family involves a lot of planning, preparing and nurturing on the part of the children to make it successful for everyone involved.