Supporting Blended Families to Remain Intact: A Case Study

Abstract

More than 40% of U.S. adults have at least one step-relative in their family. Whereas there is much research on providing support for ex-partners and their children, there has been a lesser focus on trying to keep newly blended families intact. Because many members of a failed relationship repartner and have children from these new relationships, we find there is a need to provide support for stepfamilies. The Survival Strategies Workshop provides advice on strategies for blended families. In this article, we illustrate, through the use of case studies, that most of the problems occurring in blended families are not unique and if appropriate strategies are followed the prospect of a happy future is greatly enhanced.

KEYWORDS:

• family dispute resolution
• parenting advice
• stepfamilies

Notes

¹ By cohabitating couples, we mean couples living together, whether married or not.

² It says that U.S. government statistics on stepfamilies are limited. For instance, estimates of the numbers of stepfamilies from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey are based on information about the householder’s coresiding steprelatives only. Cases where a household member other than the householder has a steprelative and cases where steprelatives are living in a separate household are excluded from the count.

³ As Levin (2004) argued that some decades ago “non-marital cohabitation began to appear in the western world as a new social institution. ‘Living apart together’—the LAT relationship—is a more recent phenomenon, which seems to have the potential of becoming the third stage in the process of the social transformation of intimacy. In contrast to couples in ‘commuting marriages,’ who have one main household in common, couples living in LAT relationships have one household each” (p. 238).

⁴ See Relationships Australia (2014) for details about the Berwick Family Relationship Centre and Relationships Australia Victoria, which administers the center.

⁵ An accredited Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner meets specific standards contained in the Australian Family Law (Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners Regulations) 2008. They are certified by the Australian Attorney General and normally require to have studied some law, psychology, social work, conflict management, mediation, or dispute resolution subjects.

⁶ One client of the Berwick Family Relationship Centre has seven children from five different relationships. Negotiating child welfare arrangements in this case is very complex. Helping parents avoid further relationship breakdowns, by understanding the complexities of blended families, is of vital importance.