The Stepparent Role

Abstract

Borrowing both conceptual framework and methodological suggestions from Nye's study of emerging roles, this article explores three different aspects of parental roles in reconstituted families: (1) the expectations from persons in that social position, (2) the typical or modal behavior of persons in that social position, and (3) sanctions associated with nonperformance of role expectations. The analysis of indepth interviews with one member of 99 remarried families with children indicates that (1) stepparents are expected to share equally in child-rearing duties in over half of the families, but less than natural parents, (2) equal sharing of decisions regarding children characterized less than a third of the sample, and (3) sanctions for stepparents who refuse to bring up stepchildren are not as strong as those for natural parents. A sizable proportion of reconstituted families differs considerably from the two-parent family model. Discussion focuses on whether this variation is always or necessarily problematic.