Studying Stepfamilies: Four Eras of Family Scholarship

• Author: Lawrence Ganong,Marilyn Coleman
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12307
• Date: 01 March 2018
• Published date: 01 March 2018

Studying Stepfamilies: Four Eras of Family

Scholarship

LAWRENCE GANONG*

MARILYN COLEMAN

†

To read this article in Simplified Mandarin, please see the article’s Supporting Information on Wiley

Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/famp).

Historically, there have always been stepfamilies, but until the early 1970s, they

remained largely unnoticed by social scientists. Research interest in stepfamilies followed

shortly after divorce became the primary precursor to stepfamily formation. Because step-

families are structurally diverse and much more complex than nuclear families, they have

created considerable challenges for both researchers and clinicians. This artic le examines

four eras of stepfamily scholarship, tracing the development of research questions , study

designs and methods, and conceptual frameworks from the mid-1970s to the present and

drawing implications for the current state of the field.

Keywords: Cohabitation; Divorce; Remarriag e; Research Designs; Stepfamilies

Fam Proc 57:7–24, 2017

Stepfamilies are ubiquitous. In a 2011 U.S. survey conducted by the Pew Research Cen-

ter, 40% of respondents reported a stepparent, stepchild, or other close stepkin; about

50% of those under age 30 had a close step-relative (Parker, 2011). In 2013, 40% of U.S.

marriages represented a remarriage for one or both partners (Lewis & Kreider, 2015), and

8% of married adults had been married three or more times (Livingston, 2014). There are

now nearly twice as many remarried adults in the United States as in 1980 (Livingston,

2014). Recent statistics indicate that 15% of American children live with a stepparent and

parent (Pew Research Center, 2015).

Although other western nations have been less committed to remarriage than Ameri-

cans, remarried and cohabiting stepfamilies exist in some form in nearly eve ry country in

the world (e.g., De Jong Gierveld & Merz, 2013; Nicholson, Fergusson, & Horwood, 1999).

Even Asian countries with historically low rates of divorce are experiencing increases in

remarriage and stepfamily formation (Kim, 2010; Nozawa, 2015).

A growing awareness of the pervasiveness of stepfamilies has been accompanied by a

40-year explosion of social science research on stepfamilies and step relationships. In this

relatively short span, the body of research on stepfamilies has grown from less than a

dozen U.S. studies in the 1970s (Espinoza & Newman, 1979) to thousands of published

works conducted by scholars from nearly two dozen countries (Ganong & Coleman, 2017).

Other articles in this subsection discuss the current research relevant to clinicians. This

article offers a broad historical overview of the specific ways in which stepfamily scholar -

ship has changed and grown, and identifies what remains problematic. We conclude with

*Department of Human Development and Family Science and Sinclair School of Nursing, University of

Missouri, Columbia, MO.

†

Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Lawrence Ganong, Department of

Human Development and Family Science, Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri, Columbia,

MO 65211. E-mail: ganongl@missouri.edu.

7

Family Process, Vol. 57, No. 1, 2018 ©2017 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12307

suggestions for future research and projections about the challenges facing stepfamily

researchers and practitioners.

Defining Stepfamilies

We define a stepfamily as a family in which at least one of the adults has a child (or chi l-

dren) from a previous relationship. A stepparent is an adult whose partner has at least one

child from a previous relationship. A stepchild is a person whose parent (or parents) are

partnered with someone who is not their biological or adoptive parent. Stepchildren may

have siblings with whom they share both parents in common, half-siblings with whom

they have one parent in common, and stepsiblings with whom they have no parents in

common. These definitions do not limit stepfamily status to those who share a household.

Whether stepparents and stepchildren live together, either full-time or part-time, they do

have a relationship and they share family membership. Our stepfamily definition also

includes gay and lesbian couples in which at least one partner brings a child into the rela-

tionship. Because cohabiting stepfamilies are increasing in North America (Kreider &

Ellis, 2011), and they constitute a large proportion of stepfamilies in Europe, New Zeal-

and, and Australia (Beier, Hofacker, Marchese, & Rupp, 2010; Pryor, 2008), these defini-

tions include cohabiting, unmarried stepcouples.

THE CONTEXT OF STEPFAMILY SCHOLARSHIP

Researchers who study families are necessarily firmly entrenched within their cultural

time and place. They are affected by demographic trends, changes in social values, and

even politics. They also are influenced by a variety of other forces, including: the commu-

nity of scholars who study and write about the same topic, the priorities set by funding

agencies, the biases of colleagues and editors who review manuscripts for journals, and

the concerns of promotion and tenure committees. The impact of these forces on the study

of stepfamilies is instructive for current and future researchers and for clinicians who

work with stepfamilies.

Stepfamilies Before the 1970s

An infant born in the United States in the late 19th century could expect to live about

half as long as one born in the late 20th century (Arias, 2015). Many parents died when

their children were quite young. For most parents, finding a new spouse or partner was

critical for survival. Consequently, throughout most of human history, stepfamilies were

formed when a parent died and the widowed parent remarried or repartnered. Histori-

cally, stepfamily members shared a single household, and stepparents functionally

replaced deceased parents in earning a living, managing the household, and rearing chil-

dren. Because mothers as well as fathers died young (Arias, 2015), throug hout most of

human history stepfamily households probably contained as many stepmothers as stepfa-

thers. Perhaps because replacing a parent who died was a necessity, especially in an agri-

culturally focused society, little thought was given to how well these stepfamilies

functioned.

A Demographic Turning Point

In the United States in the early 1970s, for the first time ever, more stepfamilies were

formed after divorce than after the death of a parent (Strow & Strow, 2006). By the mid-

1970s and early 1980s, other western nations (e.g., Canada, Australia, New Zealand) were

experiencing similar changes.

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