Bis303 Week 7 Casestudy - Marriage and Family Essay

Divorce is common in the United States; remarriage is just as common. As a result many marriages result in a blended family. A family in which both of the parents have children from previous marriages. Often the blended family shares a permanent residence. Clair Cartwright and Kerry Gibson state in their 2013 report, The effects of co-parenting relationships with ex-spouses on couples in step-families, that in the United States in 2008, around 9% of households and around 12% of cohabiting households were blended families ( Teachman & Tedrow, 2008). A blended family is an excellent place to observe symbolic interaction theory.

“Will Your Marriage Last?”, by Aviva Patz, is a cohesive article about marriage and divorce. Aviva Patz is the executive editor of Psychology Today. Patz narrates the story of Ted Huston, a professor at the University of Texas, who followed the lives of 168 couples for 13 years after their wedding date. She was then able to draw conclusions about what makes a couple stay together or end up filing divorce papers. Although marriages and divorce are the themes of this article, it is really about society’s pressure on young people to be perfect.

Chapter fourteen of the Marriage and family textbook by David Knox, covers divorce and remarriage in today’s society. It discusses how the attitudes towards divorce have changed dramatically from how it was viewed by our parents and grandparents. Not only have society’s views changed on divorce but also on the functioning roles of the family and its structure. The author also goes into how the child custody issues have changed and what things affect children who have divorcing parents. He then goes into remarriage for divorced couples and the effect it can have on the children.

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.

Being a part of a stepfamily usually means the end of a time of solitary parenthood and for some, amalgamation into another family might mean a family with stepchildren. For the young ones in the family, winding up with stepfamily may mean living with new siblings (step brother/sister). The presence of stepfamilies is of particular significance since it is related with various social, economic, lawful and family issues. Financial support given or received, family resources, the time kids spend with their family on an average and the rights and duties of parents, guardians and stepparents are a few of the things that can cause problems and issues for the individuals from these families.

When you think of a stepparent, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? For many, less fortunate than me, visions of hostility and animosity flash in our minds. Some even may remember times of abuse and loathing toward those who represent a family figure. However, that’s not the case for me. I got lucky, by some miraculous, luck of the draw, once in a lifetime occurrence, I got gifted Sarah.

The reasons behind this was because they believed stable cogabitating couples were financially unstable, there is less parental involvement and less educated compared to stable marital families. The thought that step-families would have a negative educational adjustment becauase they have already had a disruption in their lives, and the authors believed step-parents are not as involved compared to biological parents. When it came to marital disruption the authors expected a lower engagement in school as well as a negative effect on perceived achievement compared to stable married families. When it came to cohabitation disruption effect the authors thought that children would have negative effects on their educational adjustment then children in stable cohabitating families. The union specific effect compared disruption of marital families to the disruption of cohabitating couples. They expected a negative effect on the childrens educational adjustment in the disruption of cohabitating couples. The reasoning behind this is the authors believed that men in stable cohabitating families more likely when splitting up will less likely be involved in the childs life compared to men who get divorced. The authors compared most of relationships to stable marital families and they expected a negative

Work intimately with your accomplice. All the additional worries in step families put strains on the marriage. Set aside a few minutes for relationship-working with your accomplice. As a result of the more unpredictable histories in a stage or mixed family, expect challenges around issues of cash, orderliness, obligations, sex, in-laws, conventions and occasions. There are numerous acclimations to be made. Make sure to expand on and accentuate the qualities you have with your accomplice.

This weeks reading made me think about how there is a misconception when it comes to stepparent. In the reading it said how the media portrays stepparents as a bad thing. In the movie Cinderella, she has to deal with an angry stepmother that was always jealous of Cinderella. Growing up I always felt like stepparents were a bad thing due to the way it was portrayed to me when I was younger. My mindset didn't really change until I started having friends that had stepparents and step-siblings.

Sounding more nurturing and warm than the traditional step family, Merriam-Webster defines a blended family as “a family that includes children of a previous marriage of one spouse or both.” Regardless of the how cooperative and cohesive a blended family may sound, it is formed as the result of a loss, whether through divorce, separation of unmarried parents or death. To avoid confusion and complexities, this review of literature will focus on the effects that living in a blended family produces through remarriage as the result of a previous divorce. It is predicted that the blended family will eventually become the most predominant family structure in the United States, giving rise to the question of whether or not transitioning to a blended family is more advantageous for individuals throughout their development than remaining in an otherwise unhappy, intact family. This review of literature is important in highlighting current research findings on the impact that divorce and living in a blended family has on children and their lifespan

stepfamilies may sometimes have lack of parental warmth and negative interactions, which leads to disruptiveness and/or antisocial behaviors. It takes time for the adolescent to adjust to the loss of a parent in a household.

Being in a blended family is tough, and it can come with some cons. In this paper, Pros and Cons of Living in a Blended Family, a con is acting out. Acting out could be anything from throwing tantrums, telling the new parent in the new family that you're not their real parent, hitting or bullying other children, or even being listless and withdrawn from everything. Children can act out because it is can a huge change to accept the changes in their life. Another disadvantage is insecurity. Moving to a new house, neighborhood, or city and sharing space with strangers can make children feel insecure. Jealousy and confusion is very common in a blended family. Children may be jealous of the new stepparent taking up their biological parent's love, affection, and attention, or even because of having to share their biological parent with their new step-siblings. Children may feel confused on how to feel about the new family. They may feel guilty about now feeling happy enough for their parent's happiness. A blended family is a struggle, and it comes with some disadvantages, but a blended family can have its perks. Sometimes people don’t know how a blended family is going to

Unfortunately in most of the cases in which a stepfamily is assembled, negative feelings already preamble the relationship. Many children see a stepparent as an attempt to replace the absent biological parent. In order to deal with this, both the biological parent and the stepparent of the marriage, need to make the children understand that the stepparents will not replace any previous relationship; instead, he or she represents the opportunity to build a new positive relationship, which will be based on support and tolerance. Is essential that the stepparent does not try to play the role of a parent at the beginning of the relationship. A 1996 clinician study explained that; “Many stepparents fail to build friendships with their stepchildren before moving into disciplinary roles, thereby creating resistance a negative reactions from their stepchildren” (Schrodt 178). This reactions add up to the already negative perception that the child has about this new stranger that is trying to be involve in their life. If a stepparent wants to have any sort of power over the stepchild, is necessary that the stepparent gradually earns this power.

In modern scieties as divorce rate rising, the growth of women independencies, and cultural differences, families nowadays are leading various lifestyles. Single-parent families for example, are resulted from the loss of spouses as well as divorced marriages. These families often lead tougher lives for their economic circumstances. While the number of divorced marriges increasing dramatically over the few decades, the growing numbers of blended families came along. Blended families often struggle in building the relationships between the stephparents and their adolesent children, who are likely to ignore their stephparents or even fight against them. Last but not least, extended families are families

"The human species has evolved to make commitments between males and females in regards to raising their offspring, so this is a bond" (Lancaster). This means that humans were not meant to be with one mate their whole life. People only stay by this tradition so that children can grow up with the bond of both parents and not have to leave full responsibility on one parent. Couples without children, however, stay together because that is how they were raised, and that is what they are supposed to do in the eyes of god. “Marriage rates have increased between the years 1963-1975” (Gruber). Although marriage is meant to be forever, as humans, we naturally make mistakes and many couples get divorced. Divorce is two people deciding that they will be happiest without the other person and separate (Toth).