Chapter 16 Blog

Summary:
Chapter 16 delves into remarriages and stepfamilies. After a marriage is ended, either by divorce or death, many people begin to look for another mate. Some get back into the dating scene and about half practice cohabitation before remarrying. Because of there being many remarriages, the rate of stepchildren per grandparent is growing fast, while the rate of biological children is dwindling. Whites have the highest remarriage rates compared to other races, but some of the difference is due to marriage rates and cultural views on marriage. Social class and whether or not children are involved also affect remarrying. Young, uneducated women remarry more than older, educated women, and in general, having children lowers the chance of remarriage. The book introduces six stages of remarrying, which are the emotional, psychic, community, parental, economic, and legal stages. Not all remarrying couples go through every stage. Some ways first and second marriages differ are in the redistribution of roles, having step-family, and organizing financial resources. About 15% more remarriages than first marriages end in divorce, though research on remarriage satisfaction is mixed. Stepfamilies are very complex. There are a lot of changes to make, such as creating and severing ties with in-laws/stepfamily, learning how to act as one cohesive family, and working through everyone’s expectations and stereotypes of the new family. Parents in stepfamilies have many problems related to how to act towards the children. They need to form good, emotionally close yet disciplining relationships with their new kids, create boundaries, and be aware of how accepting or resentful the kids are. Parents need much patience in all aspects. Children who have good relationships with all their parents are better off than those who don’t. Stepfamilies that are successful accomplish most of these tasks and are accepting and understanding of the whole situation. They work to collaborate as a new family while recognizing each family’s differences.

New Material:
Something new I learned was that 60% of remarriages end in divorce. I’m not surprised that the number is so high, and it makes a lot of sense, but I just never knew what the statistic was.

Question/Concern:
What do we think about the lack of laws about sexual relations between stepchildren? My opinion is that there don’t need to be any laws. I think it’s a pretty simple issue. Stepchildren aren’t biologically related so there’s no problem. It’s just like meeting a new person in school or something. It may not be the best idea though, because it could obviously cause a lot of familial tension.