Jensen Todd M
School of Social Work, Family Research and Engagement Specialist, Jordan Institute for Families, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Fam Process. 2021 Jun;60(2):538-555. doi: 10.1111/famp.12556. Epub 2020 Jul 10.
Stepparent-child relationships are a core pillar of stepfamily functioning and well-being. Stepparents can take on a variety of roles in the lives of their stepchildren, ranging from de facto parents to distant acquaintances. There remain important opportunities to explore specific interactional patterns between youth and stepparents, particularly resident stepmothers. Drawing from a family systems perspective, the purpose of the current study is to explore patterns of youth-stepmother interaction across recreational, personal, academic, and disciplinary domains of family life. Latent class analysis is conducted using a representative sample of 295 youth (mean age: 15.82 years, SD = 1.63; 41% female; 65% non-Hispanic White) residing in father-stepmother households who have living nonresident mothers at Wave I of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The optimal latent class solution yielded four interactional patterns, labeled versatile and involved (21%), inactive (12%), casually connected (17%), and academically oriented (50%). The latent classes are also contrasted with respect to stepfamily relationship quality, youth well-being, and socio-demographic characteristics. Foremost, the results illustrate significant variability in the patterns of interactions between youth and their resident stepmothers, which could be attributed to youths' varying autonomy-seeking efforts and other complex family dynamics. Consistent with a family systems perspective, associations between youth-stepmother interactional patterns and family and youth outcomes highlight the importance of the relationship between youth and their resident stepmothers. Importantly, not all interactional patterns differed significantly across outcomes, suggesting that no one pattern is universally optimal in father-stepmother families with adolescent children.
继父母与继子女的关系是再婚家庭功能和幸福的核心支柱。继父母在继子女的生活中可以扮演多种角色，从事实上的父母到关系疏远的熟人。探索青少年与继父母，尤其是常住继母之间的特定互动模式，仍有重要的机会。从家庭系统的角度出发，本研究的目的是探讨青少年与常住继母在家庭生活的娱乐、个人、学业和纪律等领域的互动模式。使用来自全国青少年健康纵向研究第一波中居住在父亲-继母家庭且有非常住母亲的295名青少年（平均年龄：15.82岁，标准差=1.63；41%为女性；65%为非西班牙裔白人）的代表性样本进行潜在类别分析。最优潜在类别解决方案产生了四种互动模式，分别标记为多功能且参与型（21%）、不活跃型（12%）、随意联系型（17%）和学业导向型（50%）。还根据再婚家庭关系质量、青少年幸福感和社会人口特征对潜在类别进行了对比。首先，结果表明青少年与常住继母之间的互动模式存在显著差异，这可能归因于青少年不同的自主寻求努力和其他复杂的家庭动态。与家庭系统观点一致，青少年与继母互动模式与家庭及青少年结果之间的关联凸显了青少年与其常住继母之间关系的重要性。重要的是，并非所有互动模式在各项结果上都有显著差异，这表明在有青少年子女的父亲-继母家庭中，没有一种模式是普遍最优的。
