Exam 16: Remarriages and Stepfamilies

Stepfamilies often struggle with__________, since there are no clear guidelines regarding what responsibilities, behaviors, and emotions stepfamily members are expected to exhibit.

Research shows that both stepmothers and stepfathers play their roles with more __________ than do biological parents-more like friends than monitoring parents.

The __________ is a new family type that includes members of the two (or more) families that existed before the divorce and remarriage.

Research on communication patterns in stepfamilies reveals several different communication patterns. In which pattern do the child and the biological/adoptive parent maintain interaction, but the stepparent remains pretty much irrelevant to the child's life?

The text points out that remarriages dissolve at higher rates than first marriages, especially for remarried couples who have

White and Booth found that marital quality does not vary greatly between first marriages and single or double remarriages; it is __________ that is generally affected.

Today, the vast majority of remarrieds have been __________.

The text states that remarriages dissolve at higher rates than first marriages, especially for couples with __________.

Some people divorce, remarry, redivorce, and then marry again. But a majority of remarriages are__________ marriages.

Relatively low role ambiguity has been associated with

The text points out that as family members separate and then join new families formed by remarriage, the new kin do not so much replace as __________ kin from the first marriage.

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

In U.S. households, about four million, or __________ percent of children under age eighteen are stepchildren.

The authors of this text choose not to use the once-familiar term __________ in this chapter because family therapists and other stepfamily experts have concluded that stepfamilies do not readily __________.

The text points out that choosing a remarriage partner differs from making a marital choice the first time inasmuch as there is a(n)

The stepmother role has been described as the stepmother __________.

Cultural norms clearly indicate how stepparents should play their role.

About 4-10 percent of households with children are __________; i.e., at least one child is the biological child of both parents, and at least one other child is the biological child of one parent and the stepchild of the other parent.

According to the Stepfamily Association of America, about __________ percent of remarriages end in divorce.

Social work professor Roni Berger points out that the topics of remarriage and __________ can occur simultaneously, making for extra family stress.