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Chapter 4: General Themes and Recommendations
In this chapter we present a number of general themes that emerged from our review of the research literature and of selected programs for stepfamilies. We follow this with a discussion of additional possible settings for delivering marriage education to stepfamilies and offer recommendations for future research on low-income stepfamilies and marriage education programs targeting them.
Observations on Stepfamilies
Together our review of research literature on stepfamilies and study of programs yielded a number of observations about stepfamilies and raised questions that future research might address.
Stepfamilies Have Unique Characteristics
From the start, stepfamilies differ from non-stepfamilies in important ways:
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The biological parent-child bond predates the couple’s relationship;
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A spouse may become an “instant parent” at marriage rather than having children join the family over time;
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One of the children’s biological parents most likely lives in a separate household;
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Children may move between two households;
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The vast majority of stepfamily couples will be navigating at least one co-parenting relationship with a former spouse/partner; and
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Members of the family have experienced the loss of a relationship through separation, divorce, or death.
Marriage educators will be most effective in supporting healthy marriages among stepcouples when this unique family context is considered and addressed in program services. We emphasize that the context is likely to be even more complex and challenging among low-income stepcouples because of the higher incidence of multiple-partner fertility, with its multiple co-parenting relationships, extended family relationships, and sibling relationships. Such complexities can create additional stresses even before adding the difficulties that come with limited financial resources. Because of the complexity of relationships present at the onset of stepcouple formation, marriage education services should utilize an inclusive approach to addressing other relationships in the family system. Research indicates these relationships (e.g., stepparent-stepchild, parent-former spouse/partner) influence the quality and stability of the marital relationship.
Awareness of Stepfamilies' Unique Characteristics and Prevalence Appears Limited
The unique relationship complexities in stepfamilies often are not acknowledged and addressed by stepcouples or marriage education programs. Marriage education programs may not distinguish between stepcouples and nuclear family couples. Few general marriage education programs include program content specific to the stepfamily context.
Scholars suggest that the tendency to relegate stepcouples to a “hidden” population owes to societal norms affirming the nuclear family as “ideal” (Ganong & Coleman, 2004). One finds evidence of these norms in the media, fairy tales, and in forms and procedures used by schools and other institutions. Implicit in this treatment are societal pressures for stepcouples to function and develop in the same way as nuclear family couples.
Stepfamily Couples Need Realistic Expectations about Stepfamily Development
Many stepcouples enter marriage with the expectation that their marriage will be “just like” marriages where no stepchildren or former partners are involved. The most predominant unrealistic standards include beliefs about functional equivalency to first-marriage families, quick adjustment, and instant love (Visher & Visher, 1988). It is important that stepcouples recognize that their unique family characteristics will have implications for their marital functioning. For example, it often takes a substantial length of time for stepfamily relationships and routines to gel. The first several years are especially likely to be turbulent for stepcouples. Expectations about family bonding, emotional closeness, and love among all of the members of the stepfamily equally may be unrealistic. The programs we identified all worked to address these expectations.
Stepfamily Couples Need Skills in Parenting Stepchildren, Co-Parenting, and Negotiating
Respondents in the program study consistently indicated that tensions between stepparents and stepchildren were a key focus of their programs and that many families sought out support and education because of these issues. Several respondents told us that couples with pre-adolescents and adolescents were especially likely to participate in the programs. This self-selection fits with empirical evidence that stepcouples with pre-adolescent and adolescent children report comparatively more adjustment issues and marital difficulties than stepcouples with younger children.
The marital relationship is affected also by the quality of the co-parenting relationship(s) with former spouses/partners. It is critically important for stepcouples to be able to keep conflict low when co-parenting and to protect the boundaries between households that are necessary for healthy marital functioning,
Although negotiation skills are important for all relationships, stepcouples face added challenges in navigating the roles and norms that are not clearly defined in general societal norms. Financial responsibilities also can be more complicated in stepfamilies, and stepcouples must successfully negotiate a shared vision for their financial practices. Although the programs interviewed usually provided information on the topics of stepparenting and negotiating with a former spouse, we did not find programs that focused on teaching these specific skills. Because most of the programs we contacted were of short duration, it may be that longer programs could do more to address specific skills.
Suggestions for Marriage Education Programs for Stepfamilies
The interviews we conducted as part of the program study suggested various settings in which marriage education (although probably not the comprehensive program depicted by the conceptual framework) could be provided to stepfamilies, especially low-income stepfamilies. These include general marriage education classes, programs for couples planning to marry, and classes for parents divorcing.
Serving Stepcouples in General Marriage Education Programs or Separately
One design question when considering how best to provide stepcouples with the comprehensive range of topics included in the conceptual framework is whether to develop programs specifically for stepcouples or to incorporate stepfamily-specific material in general marriage education programs serving both stepfamilies and non-stepfamilies.
We are not aware of any research on which of the two approaches is more effective. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Targeted programs can be more fully tailored to stepfamily issues and needs, and participants may benefit from the additional social support and “normalization” from sharing experiences with others in similar circumstances. On the other hand, it may be difficult to identify and recruit participants who are strictly from stepfamilies. Programs for mixed groups are more practical, as a substantial number of the current participants in general marriage education programs are likely to be in stepfamilies, and thus a new outreach effort would not be needed. Furthermore, if stepcouples tend to avoid programs that single them out, they may be more likely to participate in a general program. Another possible benefit may be in raising awareness of stepfamily issues among non-stepfamilies.
General marriage education content and stepfamily-specific content might be combined using a number of approaches. For instance, content on stepfamilies, emphasizing their unique characteristics and developmental stages and other high priority topics, could first be presented to all the participants in general marriage education programs. Then more specific content on stepfamilies could be addressed in separate breakout sessions for stepcouples. Such sessions also would provide them with an opportunity to build social support among the stepfamilies.
Classes to Prepare Couples for Marriage
Stepfamily content would also be appropriate to add to marriage preparation classes. Many couples, including stepcouples, are encouraged or required by their religious institutions to attend a marriage preparation class. General marriage preparation classes appear frequently to include participants from a range of socioeconomic groups. Some religious institutions already have created marriage preparation classes specifically for soon-to-be stepfamilies although such programs do not appear to be in widespread use. Participants in marriage preparation programs are likely to include couples who are forming stepfamilies, whether through remarriage or by marrying for the first time but with children from previous relationships. It would be reasonable, therefore, to include general content about the unique characteristics of stepfamilies within these courses to address the needs of this group and to raise awareness of stepfamily issues generally. As was suggested in the context of general marriage education programs, marriage preparation programs could offer additional sessions for those forming stepfamilies to discuss their particular concerns.
State-Mandated Classes for Divorcing Parents
A number of states require divorcing parents to attend classes before they can be granted a divorce,1 with the intent to reduce the potential negative impact of the divorce on the children. The majority of these divorcing parents will eventually remarry and form stepfamilies. Therefore, pre-divorce classes may be an appropriate context in which to include at least some content on stepfamily issues. Particularly in the states where these classes are required by law, a substantial number of low-income and minority couples are likely to attend. Content could focus on general information about stepfamilies and the implications for future marriages. The facilitator could also provide information on marriage education and other relevant services available in the community. An examination of curricula used in these classes reveals that most already devote about 10 to15% of the time to issues related to re-partnering and stepfamilies (Geasler & Blaisure, 1998). Unfortunately, the content tends to be very narrow, focused mainly on cautioning parents against forming new relationships too quickly and the potential negative impact on children when they face yet another set of changes.
Increasing Awareness of Stepfamilies
Our interviews identified a general lack of awareness about stepfamily issues. One promising approach to increasing awareness among professionals working with families is for stepfamily experts to provide workshops to professionals in a community. To reach stepcouples directly, efforts to work with institutions that serve communities such as schools, medical clinics, and libraries to distribute information about stepfamilies and marriage education services might be helpful. Marriage License Bureaus could distribute brochures and other information to newly forming stepfamilies.
Recommendations For Future Research and Evaluation
Improved information on stepfamilies is a serious need in fashioning policies and programs. Here, we offer suggestions on several broad areas of needed research, both descriptive studies and evaluation research studies.
Descriptive Research on Stepfamily Prevalence
It is difficult to assess potential demand for stepfamily programming without current information on the prevalence of stepfamilies in the United States today. For the Healthy Marriage Initiative, more detailed statistics on low-income and racial/ethnic minority populations are needed especially. Analysis of large surveys, such as the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), the 1996 and 2001 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), and the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) could provide more current estimates of stepfamily formation, stability, and prevalence. Tracking trends would become possible if questions were added to the March Supplement of the Current Population Survey to identify the presence of stepchildren in the household.
Descriptive Studies on Economically Disadvantaged Stepcouples’ Attitudes and Experiences
We know almost nothing about the attitudes and experiences of economically disadvantaged stepcouples or of stepcouples who are racial and ethnic minorities. In order to more effectively reach out to minority and economically disadvantaged stepcouples and address their perceived needs, it would be beneficial to know more about how they view themselves; the extent to which they understand the differences between stepfamilies and non-stepfamilies; their attitudes and beliefs about stepfamilies; and developmental and relational patterns of successful stepfamily couples. Differences across racial and ethnic groups are also important to establish: for example, how much do ethnic differences in relations with extended family influence the stepfamily experience? It would also be useful to investigate what aspects of marriage education are most and least attractive to low-income stepcouples and ethnic/minority stepcouples.
Evaluation Research on Strategies to Provide Information to Stepfamilies and the General Public
There is substantial evidence that many stepfamilies have romanticized or overly unrealistic views about family functioning and may not know that it often takes several years before a stepfamily develops comfortable relationships and routines. It would be useful to investigate ways of increasing stepcouple’s realistic views of the challenges they face. It would also be of interest to investigate how to increase the general public’s awareness of stepfamilies’ characteristics and how to encourage more positive societal views of stepfamilies.
Research on Influences on Stepfamily Formation and Outcomes
Our conceptual framework depicts the conditions affecting stepfamilies as influencing intermediate and long-term outcomes both directly and by influencing the effects of the program. A number of research questions could be directed at better understanding how conditions (e.g., individual , stepfamily, and community characteristics) affect outcomes such as quality of marriage and parenting relationships and the stability of marriages over time. These questions include:
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What societal norms, neighborhood contexts, family of origin experiences, aspects of childbearing/children and individual characteristics of mental and physical health, etc. affect stepfamily formation, quality and stability and other possible outcomes? Which factors, comparatively, are more predictive of outcomes?
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Through what relationship processes do these conditions operate on stepfamily outcomes? What are the interrelationships among factors in the conceptual model?
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How do the above differ for disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged stepcouples?
Evaluation Research on Marriage Education Programs for Stepfamilies
Although some issues facing low-income stepcouples will be the same as the issues facing non-disadvantaged stepcouples, additional stresses caused by economic disadvantage may make these issues more salient and/or more extreme. Furthermore, although low-income stepcouples may need marriage education as much as or more than their middle-class counterparts, low-income couples may find it more difficult to participate in marriage education because of logistical barriers such as complicated work schedules, lack of child care and transportation.
Given the paucity of information about economically disadvantaged stepcouples and the apparent lack of programs serving them, it would seem reasonable to start with research on implementation studies and on studies of participants’ experiences in marriage education programs for low-income stepcouples and only later turn to investigating the potential impact of such programs. Here we briefly introduce suggestions for implementation research, describe the possibility of a subgroup analysis of stepfamilies within the SHM demonstration project, and make suggestions for a longitudinal impact study.
We believe that the development and study of pilot programs that serve stepcouples in low-income and racial/ethnic minority populations would help identify potentially promising practices. These practices could then be further studied. For instance, it would be useful to know whether low-income and middle- or higher-income stepcouples would take advantage of programs sponsored by institutions serving the general population, such as public schools and hospitals. It would also be useful to learn how teaching techniques and written information make the marriage education content most useful and relevant to program participants. A more systematic study of programs addressing stepfamily needs might contribute to the understanding of best practices for serving this population.
Another important study topic is whether the unique needs of stepfamilies can be addressed effectively within the format of general marriage education programs. It is likely that some of the initiatives supported by the Healthy Marriage Initiative, including the Building Strong Families and Supporting Healthy Marriage projects, will include stepcouples. Substudies within these initiatives particularly SHM, because it serves married couples, could potentially shed light on some of these implementation issues.
Research on the experiences of stepfamilies participating in both general and stand-alone marriage education programs would be valuable. What factors drove stepcouples to volunteer for the programs? What factors contributed to retention? What aspects of the programs did they find most and least relevant? Essential first steps in an evaluation of marriage education for stepcouples are to identify and document strong, research-based approaches and to learn more about how to implement them with fidelity to the particular program approach.
A second level of research relates to investigating the impacts of marriage education programs directed at strengthening stepcouple marriages. Research on effectiveness should use rigorous study designs (i.e. experimental) and follow stepcouples for several years or more.
In the near future, the SHM project will provide opportunities to do subgroup analysis with low-income stepcouples. This demonstration focuses on low-income married couples, many of whom are likely to be stepfamilies, and the curricula as now planned will include some stepfamily-specific content.2
If indications from pilots of more comprehensive programs for stepfamilies seem promising, rigorous tests of such programs also could be valuable. Such programs would be designed to incorporate all key elements of our conceptual model. An empirically-validated model of best practices for marriage education for low-income couples could make a significant contribution towards increasing the numbers of stepcouples experiencing healthy marriages, thus promoting their greater marital stability and the increased likelihood of positive child outcomes.
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