How Do Stepfamily Members View the Role of the Stepparent?
“Our results showed that parents and stepparents generally thought in fairly similar ways about how the role of the stepparent is being performed and how it should be performed; however, stepchildren had views that were quite different than those of their parent and stepparent. With reference to how the stepparent role should be performed, about half of the parents and stepparents identified ‘parent’ as the ideal stepparent role; ‘stepparent’ and ‘friend’ were each chosen by less than 25 percent of parents and stepparents. By contrast, 40 percent of stepchildren identified ‘friend’ as the ideal descriptor; only 29 percent identified ‘parent’ and 18 percent identified ‘stepparent.’ “With reference to stepfamily member’s views of how the stepparent role is currently being performed, parents and stepparents again had similar perceptions. Most identified the current relationship as either that of ‘stepparent’ or ‘parent’ with 69 percent of parents and 73 percent of stepparents identifying
