Stepfather–Adolescent Relationship Quality During the First Year of Transitioning to a Stepfamily

• Author: Valarie King,Rachel Lindstrom,Paul R. Amato
• Published date: 01 October 2015
• Date: 01 October 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12214

V K, P R. A,  R L The Pennsylvania State University

Stepfather–Adolescent Relationship Quality During

the First Year of Transitioning to a Stepfamily

This study contributes to the growing litera-

ture on factors associated with the formation

of close relationships between stepfathers and

stepchildren. The authors extend prior research

by using nationally representativedata from Add

Health (N=179) to examine how factors exist-

ing prior to stepfamily formation are associ-

ated with the quality of stepfather–adolescent

ties within the rst year after married stepfa-

thers join the household. Results from structural

equation models revealed that both the quality

of the mother–adolescent relationship and ado-

lescent adjustment prior to stepfamily formation

were signicantly associated with the perceived

quality of adolescents’ relationships with their

stepfathers.

The general instability of child-bearing unions

in the United States, combined with the tendency

for parents to form new partnerships following

relationship disruption, means that stepfamilies

have become a central feature of the American

family system. Kreider and Ellis (2011) reported

that almost 8% of all U.S. children lived with

a stepparent in 2009, and about 30% of U.S.

children will live with a stepparent at some time

before reaching adulthood (Bumpass, Raley,

& Sweet, 1995). The majority of stepfamilies

Department of Sociology, The Pennsylvania State

University,211 Oswald Tower, University Park, PA16802

(vek1@psu.edu).

Key Words: father–child relations, mother–child relations,

parent–adolescent relations, postdivorce parenting, step-

families, structural equation modeling.

involve residential stepfathers (Stewart, 2007),

who were the focus of the current study.

This study builds on recent research on

factors that are associated with the formation

of close relationships between stepfathers and

stepchildren (e.g., Ganong, Coleman, & Jami-

son, 2011; Jensen & Shafer, 2013; King, 2009;

King, Thorsen, & Amato, 2014). In contrast

to earlier studies that focused on differences

between stepfamilies and two-parent bio-

logical families, more recent studies have

focused on variation within stepfamilies.

Stepfamily-focused research, like the cur-

rent study, investigates processes unique to

stepfamilies (e.g., the presence of stepsiblings

and the number of years in a stepfamily) that

may produce positive or negative stepfamily

outcomes. In this study we drew on Waves

I and II of the National Longitudinal Study

of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health;

http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth)

and examined adolescents who transitioned

from single-mother households to married

mother–stepfather households between waves.

Our goal was to use variables measured prior

to the entry of stepfathers to predict the quality

of stepchild–stepfather relationships during the

rst year after stepfamily formation.

B  C P

Understanding adolescents’ relationships with

stepfathers in newly formed stepfamilies is a

topic of particular importance, and the cur-

rent study captured families when they are

particularly vulnerable. Many families exhibit

Journal of Marriage and Family 77 (October 2015): 1179–1189 1179

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12214