Exam 15: Remarriages and Stepfamilies

According to the text, the nuclear-family model

Data based on the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study found that more than of women who had a child with an unmarried partner formed a married or cohabiting union with a new partner within five years.

Today, approximately percent of all marriages involve a remarriage of one or both partners.

Present an argument to explain the contradiction that marriages and remarriages have similar levels of marital quality (happiness), but remarriages have lower stability rates than first marriages.

Eventually, a stepfamily might achieve integration and appreciate its unique identity. This is known as the stage in Papernow's seven-stage model of stepfamily development.

Family structure (whether the family is first-marriage, cohabiting, divorced, or remarried) is not as important to stepchildren's well-being or future outcomes as is

The text explores three areas in which the stepfamily is likely to seem an incomplete institution, with ambiguous norms. Which of the following is NOT one of these areas?

Because of the cultural ambiguity of remarried family relationships, social scientist Andrew Cherlin calls the remarried family a(n) .

The describes the process by which veritable strangers to one another form nourishing, reliable relationships.

The term stepparent originally meant an additional parent figure, not a person who replaces a dead parent.

Children lower the likelihood of remarriage for both men and women, but the impact of children is greater on men's probability of remarriage.

The text indicates that perhaps the most significant factor in the comparative instability of remarriages is

Many stepparent-stepchild relationships over time.

Statistics on stepfamilies are difficult to attain, and the statistics we do have are probably

Remarrying women generally benefit more than do remarrying men..

Remarriages are less stable than first marriages.

What does it mean that the remarried family is called an incomplete institution? How does this affect the people involved in a remarriage? Is the situation changing?

Our society offers members of remarried families no , or set of socially prescribed and understood guidelines, for relating to each other or for defining responsibilities and obligations.

Another challenge to remarried families is that roles of stepchild and stepparent are

Explain several reasons why stepparenting is likely to be a problem in remarriage.