Adolescent 's Relationship With A Biological And Step Parent

The family dynamics in Max Apple’s “Stepdaughters” and Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets” displays some of the issues that parents, stepparents and teenagers may or may not experience. A mother’s relationship with her children has a very unique connection, especially when it comes our daughters. Being a mother or stepmother is a problematical and rewarding experience: nevertheless, a mother’s love is unconditional. How do you except someone for his or her choices on being different? Is it easier for a step-parent to see things more clearly that the biological parent? Every family has its issues. When it’s a blended family with mothers, fathers, stepchildren and other family member, those issues can become more complex to understand.

The key research question in this study is what are the long term effects of parental divorce on a child’s relationship between their parents and their siblings? They took into consideration variables such as age of divorce, gender, and living arrangements so they can see what influence they may have on the present study results and compare it with previous studies. They gave 3 different surveys to 102 students with married parents and 107 students with divorced parents to be able to observe the differences in relationships between the two types of families. Some of the key findings of this study are that females actually have better adult relationships with their siblings and that divorce caused the children to have better relationships with their mother, and worse relationships with their father. They noted that the age when their parents got divorced was not a variable that affected whether or not they had a good relationship with their siblings. For the relationship between their mothers, it was better unless there was a variable of pre-divorce or post-divorce conflict between them. For their fathers, it showed that daughters had worse relationships with their fathers compared to sons. Living arrangements showed effects for both of the parents depending on which parent they lived with. When it comes to remarriage, it had a positive affect on mother-child relationship when the father got remarried and no affect when the mother was remarried.

“Teen Health and Wellness” expresses that the result on children ages six to eight is most profound. It says they are old enough to realize what is happening but do not have adequate skills to deal with the disruption. It asserts that they often feel a sense of responsibility, experience tremendous grief, and have a pervasive sadness and yearning for the departed parent. According to this article, adolescents' reactions to divorce include anger, a desire for a stable home, and a need for clear boundaries between them and their parents, especially around such issues as sexuality, dating, and household responsibilities. “Dysfunctional Family” testifies that teens that already have to deal with their maturing bodies and minds, divorce is just an added burden (Dysfunctional Family).

Follow divorce the visual child showed signals of psychological problems, and received mental health treatment for anxieties and fear. Although researchers found divorce has fewer negative impact on children, I decided to take it seriously like it happened to a teenage boy (chap 7). A good relationship between parents is one of factors could help to ameliorate the negative effects of divorce on adolescents (chap 7). I couldn’t change the program setting which there were still some arguments between two parents after divorce, but if I can I always chose these selections which allow the visual child’s father join the parenting. For example, I encouraged the boy to visit his father on weekends and work on self-designed projects together. I hoped that could help to improve both the relationship between parents and the relationship between the child and his father. At the same time, I worked hard to keep the balance between discipline and warmth while parenting. A good relationship between adolescents and their mothers is another important factors could help to reduce the negative effects of divorce (chap 7). I had no idea about if I overreacted or not, until there was a period of time the child kept challenging my authority and isolated himself. It was so helpful that the boy was doing fine with his dad and opened to discuss with him. At the end of program the child was very close to both parents, which also

Children between the ages of 6-8 tend to have fantasies of their parents reconciling. They continuously force their parents to interact in any way possible. They tend to want to fix their parents problems, usually taking the blame for their parent’s divorces or disagreements. Child often during these ages have conflicting ideas of loyalty and whose side they should choose during a conflict. Which is why psychologists stress the importance of a no conflict environment to make it easier for the child in these developmental stages. Children during this stage of development tend to have the most grief over not have the other parent living with them. They tend to crave

In today’s society, divorce is on the rise and has been for the past few decades. As the rate increases, so does the rate of remarriage. If there is a child whose biological parents divorce and remarry, the increase of stepfamilies occurs as well. This concept is the concept of what the reading this week connects to in the stepfamilies chapter of Floyd and Morman’s (2014) book. This chapter has truly spoken to me as a child of a remarriage by the age of 8 and 14and how difficult it was growing up dealing with two different stepfamilies. Reading this chapter this week gave me some more insight into how I have communicated within my stepfamilies.

Parental divorce has many drastic effects on the life of a child, whether it be the abrupt changes made or the devastation of losing a parent. Though this event changes the lives of thousands of children a day, by discussing the psychodynamic perspective of psychology, analyzing research methods, exploring necessary

Children often interpret that parents chose to separate and leave, while they eventually understand that death was not the child’s responsibility” (Bullcock 47). Whenever a parent remarries and other children are involved, the children can feel hatred to one another because their parent remarried. Siblings, step siblings and half siblings can push each other’s buttons for their emotions.

Around 50 percent of all marriages in the United States today end in divorce (Cherline, 1992; Popenoe, 1996, as cited in Potter, 2010). There are several contributing factors. Infidelity, addictions, abuse, lack of intimacy, conflicts, finances, and changes in views of success, priorities and interests could all be reasons marriages fail (Payne, Olver, & Roth, n.d.). Divorce not only impacts the married couple, but also their children. Children may experience many mixed emotions when internalizing the divorce. This group proposal will evaluate the behaviors that children may display when going through a period of family breakup. In addition, I will discuss how group counseling may benefit adolescent children in coping with divorce and strategies that may help limit unwanted behaviors.

     Adolescents also develop mixed emotions and have mood swings, which makes the relationship with their family members difficult to maintain. Males have a difficult time dealing with fact that they are lacking a father figure. They sometimes feel as if they were betrayed and no longer loved by him. This rejection from their father adds to the difficult time for adolescents. The are continuously wishing for a reunion of their parents. In some cases, harsh feelings and negativity are displayed towards the mother because of the father missing. Females, on the other hand, lean toward their friends as support figures. They try not to allow the divorce to bring them down. "They were happier and also more likely to view the divorce as an improvement to their family situation prior to the separation," (Dufour, p.10).

King, et al. (2015) emphasizes three main points in their research. They are focusing on the lack of literature surrounding what factors may influence a child’s perception of their family belonging. The researchers explain that a child’s perception of family belonging is linked to a child’s well-being, therefore stressing the importance of understand what factors may play a part in the child’s sense of their own belonging. With the number of divorce rates being around 40-50 percent, and the number of adolescent growing up in stepfamilies increasing, the research is applicable. Secondly, the researchers are focusing on the importance of the quality mother-child relationship as well as the stepfather-child relationship. A mother plays a key role

In the last two decades divorce has increased substantially leaving couples single and families broken. Divorce is the reality for many families as there is an increase in divorce rates, cohabitation rates, and the number of children raised in step and single marital families. Divorce cannot be overlooked as it negatively affects and impacts youngsters for the rest of their lives. Although it is the decision between two parents’s children are hurt the most in the process. The concept of divorce is extremely difficult for children to understand as there are many unanswered questions and uncertainties. “Will my mom or dad remarry and who will I live with?” are concerns children express while going through divorce. Many

Adolescence is defined as “the period of transition between childhood and adulthood that involves biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes” (Santrock, 2012, p. 16). This time period can be very stressful in itself with all the changes that are going on physically, socially and emotionally. Not only is an individual experiencing physical changes as they enter puberty but his or her social roles are also changing and that can be difficult to adjust to. It can be hard enough for a person to discover who he or she is and to become their own person during this time of transition, but that is made even more difficult when the individual’s home life is thrown into chaos and he or she experiences the turmoil of divorce. Experiencing a parental divorce or separation during adolescence can have long-term effects not only on the teenager’s

Children need intact families to flourish. It is hard to imagine that if the family is torn apart, a child can simply adjust to a new situation, home, step-parent, siblings, and entire change of life as they know it without suffering significant effects upon their mental health and development lacks. Despite voices that serve to minimize the effects of divorce on children, this paper will show that the negative effects upon their mental health and development are such that the best solution is to avoid divorce all together. According to Stinson and Jones, “well-being on the road to adulthood for both children and teens hinges on family relationships.”

Despite being a transitional family, this study found that stepfathers, across the board, positively helped the children under their care. In addition to the research, it was found that the healthier relationship the child shared with the stepfather was largely due to the relationship that already preexisted between the biological mother and child. Also as stated in the research question, it was assumed that child behavior prior to a stepfather moving in would affect the bond between them. This proved to be correct, however, the initial mind set was that depression would drive a wedge between their relationship in actuality it proved to help draw the stepfather and child closer together. The study also encouraged delaying a stepfather joining the household if the child displayed delinquent behavior because it could cause problems between the stepfather and stepchild. Due to past findings, it was believed that girls rather than boys would have more troublesome relationships with their stepfathers. This proved to be true, not just because of gender, but also because girls would hide their depressive