New Beginnings: Single-Parent Families, Remarriages, and Blended Families

1
Chapter 15

• New Beginnings Single-Parent Families,
  Remarriages, and Blended Families

2
Chapter Outline

• Single-parent Families
• Binuclear Families
• Remarriage
• Blended Families

3
New Beginnings

• 1/2 of all recent marriages involve at least one
  previously married partner.
• More than 1/4 of families with children are
  currently single-parent families.

4
New Beginnings

• 1/2 half of all children born in the 1990s will
  live in single-parent families sometime during
  their childhoods.
• Over 2.3 million households have stepchildren
  living in them.

5
Single Parent Families

• A more significant departure from the traditional
  nuclear family than other alternative families
• Both the dual-worker family and the stepfamily
  are two-parent families.
• Single-parent families are generally headed by
  women and are more vulnerable to poverty.
• The mother may never have married.

6
Rise in Single-parent Families and Stepfamilies

• Result of shifting social values rather than
  individual shortcomings or pathologies.
• Single-parent families and stepfamilies have
  become a natural part of the contemporary
  American family system.
• Many of their problems lie in the stigma attached
  to them and their lack of support by the larger
  society.

7
Life Pattern of Women Previous Generations

• Marriage
• Motherhood
• Widowhood

8
Life Pattern of Women Today

• Marriage
• Motherhood
• Divorce
• Single parenting
• Remarriage
• Widowhood

9
Characteristics Of Single-parent Families

• Creation by widowhood, divorce, or births to
  unmarried women
• Usually female headed
• Significance of ethnicity
• Poverty

10
Characteristics Of Single-parent Families

• Diversity
• Transitional character
• Some are created intentionally through planned
  pregnancy, artificial insemination, and adoption.

11
Characteristics of Successful Single Parents

• Acceptance of responsibilities and challenges of
  single parenthood.
• Parenting as first priority.
• Consistent, nonpunitive discipline.
• Emphasis on open communication.

12
Characteristics of Successful Single Parents

• Fostering individuality that is supported by the
  family.
• Recognition of the need for self-nurturance.
• Dedication to rituals and traditions.

13
Strengths Associated With Successful Single
Parenting

1. Parenting skills The ability to take on both
   expressive and instrumental roles and traits.
2. Personal growth A positive attitude toward the
   changes in their lives and pride in overcoming
   obstacles.
3. Communication An ability to clearly convey their
   feelings to their children and friends.

14
Strengths Associated With Successful Single
Parenting

1. Family management Ability to coordinate family,
   school, and work activities and to schedule
   meals, appointments, family time, and alone time.
2. Financial support The ability to become
   financially self-supporting and independent.

15
The Binuclear Family

• Consists of two nuclear families the
  mother-headed family and the father- headed
  family.
• The binuclear family consists of five subsystems
• former spouse, remarried couple, parent-child,
  sibling, and mother/stepmother-father/stepfather
  subsystems

16
Binuclear Family
17
Dating and Single Parents

• They may feel guilty about going out.
• They must look at potential partners as potential
  parents.
• They must deal with their childrens judgments or
  hostility.

18
Remarriage

• Differences from first marriage
• Partners get to know each other in the midst of
  major changes.
• They remarry later in life.
• They have different marital expectations.
• Their marriage often creates a stepfamily.

19
How Stepfamilies Differ From Original Family

• Almost all members have lost an important primary
  relationship.
• One biological parent lives outside the current
  family.
• The relationship between a parent and child
  predates the new marital relationship.

20
How Stepfamilies Differ From Original Family

• Stepparent roles are ill defined.
• Children often are also members of the
  noncustodial parents household.
• Children have at least one extra pair of
  grandparents.

21
Becoming a Stepfamily

• Each person experiences the process differently.
• For family members, it involves seven stages.
• Early stages are fantasy, immersion, and
  awareness.
• Middle stages are mobilization and action.
• Later stages are contact and resolution.

22
Strengths of Stepfamilies

• Improved family functioning and reduced conflict
  between former spouses.
• Children may gain multiple role models, more
  flexibility, concerned stepparents, additional
  siblings, additional kin, improved economic
  situation, and happily married parents.