The Cultural Context of Stepfamilies

Abstract

Stepfamilies do not live in a cultural vacuum. Neither do researchers, educators, practitioners, or policymakers. As we noted briefly in the first chapter, prevailing cultural values and belief systems about remarriages and stepfamilies affect the perspectives of individuals who study and work with stepfamilies. More importantly, cultural beliefs and values wield strong influences on the ways in which stepfamily members think about their relationships, interact together, and feel about each other (Bray, 1999; Berger, 2000). In short, stepfamily relationships and the dynamics of stepfamilies are determined, at least in part, by the prevailing ideologies in their cultural contexts. For this reason, we present a brief overview of the cultural milieu in which stepfamilies live before we explore stepfamily functioning in depth in later chapters. We think it is important to understand the social and psychological environments in which individuals create stepfamilies (e.g., remarrying adults), find themselves conscripted into stepfamilies (e.g., stepchildren), or interact with stepfamily members (e.g., teachers, clergy).