The establishment of blended families can heighten the complexity of human relationships because of a myriad of challenges it comes with. Blended or stepfamilies is a social unit comprising of two formerly married couples and their children. Though such families have faced a plentiful of challenges and configurations, favorable legislations, policies and social changes have continuously been made to protect them and ensure inclusivity. This research paper critically analyzes the history of blended families, current configuration, and projection for the coming years.
The History of Blended Families
The earliest documented use of the prefix stepfamily is in the 8th century, by the Latin. Words such as Steopsunu, filiaster, stepbairn, and stepmother were occasionally used to show a connection arising from remarriage (Phillips, 1997). In early modern America and Europe between 20-40 percentages of all marriages occurred between divorced or widowed couples. On average, marriages lasted less than 12 years because of high mortality rates. The deaths were as a result of illness, war, and occupation. Estimates show that in the late 1600s, many children lived in single parenthood families and about 30% lost both parents (Mintz & Kellogg, 1988). Although there was an assumption that women died during childbirth, leaving more men to look for other partner, men also died young due to illness, warfare or injury (Phillips, 1997). More widowed women as compared to men remained single. Blended families were ubiquitous since they were necessary to fill the gap left by one of the couples. In parts of America, families were mostly nuclear. Couples were fundamental to the proper functioning of such families. During the colonial era, the integrated family set the base for the increasingly isolated family in the 19th century.
Nevertheless, the family unit was more important than it is today. Its structure mirrored the society at large and was integrated with the economy, church, and towns (Dupuis, 2007). Marriage was defined as a lifelong relationship. Nevertheless, the definition represented a cultural ideal as opposed to reality (Amato, 2005). Typically, the household had a nuclear unit comprising of the mother, child, and father. The primary cause of the change was the separation of work brought about by industrialization. The father moved from household to labor force and became the breadwinner leaving the mother as a housewife (Wilson, 2014). The man was the sole protector and provider of the family hence it was expected that a mature woman should have a husband. He had the title of disciplinarian and wage-earner (Dupuis, 2007). On the other hand, the child developed harpy etched identities with culture and routine unto themselves. In the 19th century, home and family served as a refuge from the challenging world.
With the advent of divorce and existing legal procedures to facilitate smooth divorce and separation process, remarriage started becoming a normal phenomenon within our society, especially from the mid19th century (Dupuis, 2007). Currently, roughly 50.0% of first-time marriages end up in divorce. Of the divorced persons, 65% remarry bringing their children into the new family structures creating a novel normative family (Dupuis, 2007). With the economic empowerment of women at the beginning of 19th century , men were not the only breadwinners. Thus, up until the 21st century it is expected that both partners provide for the family. Arguably, a significant number of divorces occur due to financial problems and lack of trust. With the ever-increasing cost of living, compounded by the search for security most divorced or single parents have since remarried to establish blended families. However, such trends are not typical for women who are economically self-sufficient. The conditions of state legislatures, courts, deinstitutionalization of marriage and the public view that justify divorce and blended families have expanded consistently, especially during 19th and 20th centuries.
Current Factors of Blended Families
In the present times, it is less frequent to find parents living under the same roof with children from their previous relationships. The modern couples seem to be taking advantage of various available options such as scenarios where children remain in the family home while the parent's interchange in and out or even parents are having relationship commitments but retain separate households with their separate children. The choice of leaving different lives may happen for various reasons. As compared to the past, women are more financially independent and can support and provide for their households. Therefore, they do not entirely rely on the man for survival. Furthermore, parents are more concerned with the possibility of the creation of another loss in the lives of their children should the present relationship fail (Kumar, 2017).
There are other factors to consider such as maintaining kids in some specific schools as well as the belief that keeping the children in separate homes is for the children’s sake and interest (Kumar, 2017). Blended families are becoming a common form of the family especially in the 21st century which has seen a lot of changes in views, especially from a sociological perspective. Unlike in the past, family in the present times outspreads way further than people’s blood relationships and captures a broad sense of its meaning to be related in a familial sense. Some individuals argue that chosen families bring about more energy and strength than one’s biological families. Historically, the occurrence of blended families resulted mainly from the death of a spouse. Even though this is still a factor, separation is the most common factor in the modern blended families. By the standards of the society, such families are seen as insufficient establishment as compared to the nuclear family setup (Kumar, 2017).
Public policies have an undisputable impact on families including regulation of employment conditions, defining the parent’s rights and responsibilities among others. Parents in blended families tend to receive less social support as compared to traditional families mainly from the social organizations or institutions with which they interact. There are various modifications in family laws in the United States affecting the legal relationships between stepchildren and stepparents. For instance, many states now allow third parties such as step-parents to get post-divorce guardianship. In some states, stepparents have financial support accountabilities for stepchildren although such obligations come to an end by the end of a remarriage (Kumar, 2017).
Even though stigmatization connected to divorce has significantly gone down over the decades, remarriages, as well as stepfamilies, tend to be seen as divorce extensions or consequences of failed or broken marriages. Even with the changing domestic laws, they are viewed as having failed to offer blended families with appropriate support. Parents have limited permissible responsibilities towards their step-children and fewer privileges as well, as the current laws tend to be more protective of traditional families through legislation that creates discrete prerogatives, obligations, and protections for parents, spouses, and children. The blended families always have the benefit of the presence of two potential earners or cares. However, they may be worse off financially due to the consequences of previous marriages such as losing some properties (Kumar, 2017).
Future of Blended Families
The average household in most countries dropped from 2.9 persons in 1980s to 2.5 in 2000s (OECD, 2011). Generally, due to the aging population, the total number of the one-person household is expected to increase by 35% in the US. Such trends are being experienced in many countries around the world. Today, more than half of households in all OECD have no children (Kumar, 2017). The reason for such trends is the current tough economic times and the increasing cost of living. In future, the cost of living is expected to increase thus putting the significant financial burden on families (Wilson, 2014). Therefore, there is a need for an institution of strategies to mitigate the adverse effects.
Also, in the coming centuries, most countries including the US are expected to experience declines in a total number of couples with children (Kumar, 2017). One of the reasons for such decline is the unwillingness to take family responsibilities, allocating more time to career development and economic challenges. Therefore, most blended families may not include children but only couples from previous marriages. However, for those blended families whose parents have come with children from previous marriages, there are high chances of them facing economic challenges to sustain the large family. Thus, the projected increase in a single-parent household, reconstituted families, could lead to high risks of poverty.
Moreover, increase in the number of childless couple families, remarriages, and divorce rates and blended family will undermine the ability for informal family care thus weakening family ties (Kumar, 2017). Studies show that approximately 40.0% of American grown-ups have a family member who is not biologically associated with them (Kumar, 2017). Consequently, the number of blended family systems will continue to increase and account for a significant share of the family units. While in the past most blended families were as a result of death, future increase in lifespan because of advances in healthcare will mean that most of the stepfamilies will be formed a result of divorce and end of contractual marriages.
In the past, there was limited constitutional and legal support for the blended families hence explaining the high dissolution rates (Amato & Irving, 2005). Currently, there has been an increasing political and legislative support for the blended families (Kumar, 2017). Civil societies and many stakeholders are pushing for laws that will safeguard the ever-changing family unit. Researchers are also looking for ways to sustain such families. Therefore, in future, availability of adequate legal and social support for all persons in a blended family will increase cohesion in the unit and also reduce the related societal stereotypes (Wilson, 2014). Also, appropriate legislative changes will promote the inclusion of stepparent as a protective factor for the stepchildren in case dissolution occurs.
Finally, the society expects that parents should take care of their children, provide basic needs and offer morals and psychological support (Kumar, 2017). Nevertheless, blended families are increasingly facing exceptional encounters that significantly diverge from those faced by nuclear households. Societal stereotypes such as viewing step-families as abnormal generate an absence of role clearness for each party. Historically, stepmothers were depicted as wicked and willing to harm their stepchildren. Using such labels combined with complicated relationship dynamic makes maintain a healthy stepfamily challenging.
Conclusion
There has been a change from the old perception of blended families seen as incomplete institutions, deviant and dysfunctional, to a more acceptable family setup in the 21st century and beyond. The number of such families has consistently increased. Consequently, the number of blended family systems will continue to grow and account for a significant share of the family units. Though such families have faced a myriad of challenges and have experienced numerous configurations, favorable legislative, policy and social changes have continuously been made to protect them and ensure inclusivity.
References
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Dupuis, S. B. (2007). Examining remarriage: A look at issues affecting remarried couples and the implications towards therapeutic techniques. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 48 (1/2), 91--104.
Kumar, K. (2017). The Blended Family Life Cycle. Journal of divorce and remarriage, 58(2), 110-125.
Mintz, S., & Kellogg, S. (1988). Domestic relations: A social history of American family life. New York: Free Press.
OECD. (2011). The future of families to 2010. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Phillips, R. (1997). Stepfamilies from a Historical Perspective. Marriage & Family Review, 26(1-2), 5-18.
Wilson, L. (2014). A History of Stepfamilies in Early America. The University of North Carolina Press.
