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Stepfamilies: How to help your child adjust
Stepfamilies can be successful if family members work to build healthy relationships. Find out how to help your child adjust to being part of a blended family.
By Mayo Clinic staffRelationships in stepfamilies can be complicated, but it's possible to build a successful blended family. Consider the challenges a blended family may pose for your child — and what you can do to overcome these hurdles as you build a new life together.
What challenges do stepfamilies pose for children?
A new stepfamily may have two separate sets of traditions but no shared family history. When a new stepfamily forms, each family member faces a unique set of challenges and potential sources of stress — especially children. A child entering a newly blended family may feel torn between the parent with whom he or she lives and the parent he or she visits. A child may have to figure out how to navigate relationships with his or her stepparent and stepsibilings. In addition, a child must face the fact that his or her parent has to deal with the demands of a new spouse, stepchildren and, possibly, an ex-spouse.
Next page(1 of 2)
- AAFMT consumer update: Families. American Association for Family and Marriage Therapy. http://www.aamft.org/families/Consumer_Updates/Stepfamilies.asp. Accessed March 17, 2010.
- Facts for families: Stepfamily problems. American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychology. http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/stepfamily_problems. Accessed March 17, 2010.
- Stepfamilies. American Academy of Pediatrics. http://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/family-dynamics/types-of-families/Pages/Stepfamilies.aspx. Accessed March 17, 2010.
- Mc Coy BQ (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. March 25, 2010.
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