Stepfamilies: Love, Marriage, and Parenting in the First Decade
2000; Wiley; Volume: 62; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1741-3737
Autores Tópico(s)Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving
ResumoStepfamilies: Love, Marriage, and Parenting in the First Decade. James H. Bray & John Kelly. New York: Broadway Books. 1998. 270 pp. ISBN 0-7679-0102-9. $25.00 cloth. Based upon a two-phase longitudinal study, with each phase comparing 100 stepfather families and 100 nuclear families, clinical psychologist and researcher James H. Bray and writer John Kelly have integrated key findings of the study with composite case-study stories about stepfamilies and with insights from working with stepfamilies. In the pure sense, the book is not a report of research findings. Rather, it is a synthesis of the results of Bray's Developmental Issues in StepFamilies Research project funded through two National Institute of Child Health and Human Development research grants (Phase 1, 1984-1988; Phase 2, 1988-1992) and his experiences as a clinical psychologist working with stepfamilies. Given the blending of research findings and clinical insights, this review constitutes a brief overview of the content of the book, followed by comments directed three groups: family researchers, family practitioners, and stepfamily members. Despite falling short of the very ambitious purpose of the book stated on page 5, to answer all the important questions of stepfamily this book significantly advances understanding of variation in types of stepfamilies and in the developmental course of stepfather families during the first 10 years of stepfamily life. Using a readerfriendly writing style, Bray and Kelly present stepfamilies as a challenging (though workable) family form. The book integrates research methodology with extensive emotion-filled stories of stepfamilies (either composite cases of project families or other stepfamilies from Bray's clinical practice) and clinical insights for addressing challenges posed through the cases. It is important recognize that the stepfamilies included in the research were stepfather families and that, although each remarried mother had the primary custody of her children, the stepfathers included first-married men and those with children with a primary residence elsewhere. Data on children were collected from one child in each family. The families were from the Houston area and primarily middle class. The research results revealed three types of stepfather families: neotraditional, romantic, and matriarchal. Each of the three types is described using examples and variation in how the three forms of stepfather family progress across three stages of stepfamily life. Although practitioners frequently emphasize how stepfamilies are a distinct form of family life, which one cannot apply assumptions about families based upon first marriage families, the research results identified a substantial group of neotraditional stepfather families who began appear much more like first-marriage families after a 2-year transition phase. Thus this book provides a modification of the ideas in many works on stepfamilies that focus on how structural features (e.g., parent-child relationships that predate the marital relationship, a nonresident parent) present a complicated stepfamily formation. This book posits that, beyond such structural features, the ways in which families address the developmental tasks of forming marital, stepparent-stepchild, and parent-child relations (including those with the nonresident parent) has important implications for both family interaction and the survival of stepfamily marriages. Researchers will find a greater desire for methodological detail about the study than can be found in the book. Thus researchers are advised supplement their reading of the book with Bray's other refereed journal articles and book chapters. For example, the developmental cycles of the stepfather families appear be based upon the assumption that the focal child and other children in the family are no older than school age at the time of the remarriage. …
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