Marriage is on the decline, and a growing proportion of children are born to unmarried parents, many of them in unstable cohabiting unions. Research increasingly shows that family instability affects children’s cognitive and social-emotional development in ways that constrain their life chances. With an eye on these trends, the Future of Children first examined marriage […]
The Supporting Healthy Marriage in Step-Families project: (1) summarized and synthesized the existing literature concerning the characteristics of stepfamilies, (2) catalogued and documented existing marriage support and education programs focused on step/blended families, and (3) developed a conceptual framework to help guide future programmatic and research agendas aimed at stabilizing and supporting step-families, with a […]
This is an activity for step-parents who might care for step-children while their spouse is deployed.
Stepfamilies: Trends, Social Implications & Sources of Support A stepfamily is defined as a family unit in which there is an adult couple and at least one has a child from a previous relationship (Cherlin, 1992). There are three major reasons to devote particular attention to stepfamilies. First, remarriages are about half of the […]
This Collection focuses on three policy areas in which there has been extensive examination of their effects on family formation: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (welfare) programs; federal tax policies; and child support enforcement/responsible fatherhood programs. For purposes of this Collection, child support enforcement and responsible fatherhood programs are combined. This is not intended to […]
The nation’s Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program is a federal/state/tribal/local partnership to promote family self-sufficiency and child well-being. In most states, approximately half of all child support orders are established and enforced by a federal and state financed child support enforcement entity known as the IV-D program (from Title IV-D of the Social Security Act). […]
It is exciting to get married. Marriage offers the opportunity to create a new family and new traditions. However, getting married when there are children involved can bring with it a new set of challenges and anxieties about making your relationship work successfully for a lifetime. Stepfamilies are very common, but creating one can be […]
Presented by the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center on June 30, 2009, this 1 hour, 30 minutes webinar focuses on the challenges stepfamilies face and effective strategies for tailoring marriage education programs to meet the needs of stepfamilies. The first presentation by Dr. Brian Higgenbotham from Utah State University, discusses the prevalence of stepfamilies, the […]
This fact sheet explores unique stepfamily characteristics and stepfamily dynamics. Data is shared on the number of stepfamilies, different types of stepfamilies, and nonresidential and cohabiting stepfamilies. It is estimated that between 10 and 20% of U.S. children reside in stepfamilies, and data is reported that indicates between 1997 and 2002, the percentage of stepfamilies […]