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Blended Family Cases

Decent Essays

Sam has been made vulnerable to mental issues owning to some major events during her childhood including separation of her parents. Amato and Keith (1991) revealed that the children of broken families are at higher risk of developing mental health issues such as aggression, anxiety, depression and criminal behaviour. There is also an evidence that mental issues in children caused by parental separation can continue well into adulthood (Amato & Keith, 1991; Chase-Lonsdale, Cherlin, & Kiernan, 1995; Rodgers, 1994). In this case it can be suggested that she was exploited in a blended family after her mother remarried including sexual abuse by her stepbrother.
Looking at her first presenting issue of anger towards strangers as well as partner there is a possibility …show more content…

Being a part of broken family first and then having a blended family upon her mother’s remarriage to her stepfather could have made her vulnerable to many problems. She might have struggled to develop her identity and self-image. Adding to this her whole family lives interstate which makes me think about distant relationship among them. This broken and later a blended family made them struggle to form a strong bonding. It is clear from some latest studies which focused on mutual relationships among the adults of the families who witnessed their parents’ divorce in their childhood. Ahrons (2007) explored the long-term effects for family bonds of the children whose parents got divorced. He interviewed adults after 20 years of their parents’ divorce and established that broken family continued to influence the family relations during the adulthood by exerting strong effect on quality of relations among family members. Moreover, one third of the children who experienced the remarriage of one of their parents stated it as more traumatic than the divorce (Ahrons, 2007). Furthermore, Sam was sexually

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