Lesson 15 – Remarriage and Stepfamilies Robert Wonser

2 Remarriage and Stepfamilies

Remarriage  Remarriage after divorce is much more likely to occur if the divorcees are in their 20s.  The odds of remarriage decline in the 30s, 40s, 50s, etc.  Remarriage typically occurs sooner for the man than the woman.  Why do you think this is?

4 Statistics  22% of marriages in the US are of a divorced person to a 1st time marrying person  20% are divorced to divorced  the other 58% are some other combination  1st - 1st  widowed-widowed  widowed-divorced  widowed-1st

 about 2/3 of women and 3/4 of men remarry after a divorce  men more likely to remarry sooner  2 nd marriage-60-67% divorce  3 rd marriage-73-74%  2/3 of divorced people remarry within 5 years  Whites more likely to remarry than Hispanics or Blacks

Reasons for Dating  Having someone to talk to and do things with (49%)  To have fun (18%)  Sex (11% men, 2% women)  To remarry (10% men, 7% women) 6

Types of Dating  Non-exclusive (32%)  Exclusive (31%)  Not dating b/c can’t find the right person to date (27%)  Not interested in dating (9%)  Same-sex dating (7% men, 3% women) 7

Internet Dating  One 2009 ranking reported that Match.com and eHarmony had 20 million subscribers  Yahoo Personals had 9 million  chemistry.com and Perfectmatch.com each had 4 million.  In fact, online dating is projected to increase between with revenues topping $1.9 billion by  Sautter et al. (2010) reported that internet dating is more common among computer-savvy and already socially networked daters.  What about homogamy and propinquity in online dating?

Types of Online Daters by Motivation  First were the adventurers who thrive in the anonymity provided by the Internet which shields them from elimination through traditional social norms.  Adventurers seek communication, curiosity, and even emotional support as they seek to meet new people.  Escapers to a virtual world were the second category.  Escapers find the real world too harsh and relax in the relatively anxiety-free cyber world.  Third and finally were the Romantics who sincerely seek for love, friendship, and sex.  Sex is not the major motivation, but is a common motivation for some Internet daters.

Why Remarry?  Recalling what we’ve discussed so far, why would anyone remarry?  Benefits?  Costs?

Remarriage  Remarriage is the legal union of a man and woman that follows the dissolution of a previous marriage for one or both spouses.  Often leads to:  Stepfamilies are formed when children from another marriage or relationship are brought into a family through a new marriage.

12 Benefits of remarriage for parents  emotional closeness, intimacy, and sexual satisfaction  greater self-esteem, contentment, and happiness  have someone with whom they can share both the financial and caregiving responsibilities  remarried parents report feelings of stress and depression related to the many demands they experience, the marriages still are as happy as those in non-divorced families

13 Remarriage compared to 1 st marriage  Direct.aspx?id=2D3499F AE0D6EC74EE 5AC1068C96527F8EF8AD16A5722AE46ACFBB0 1BC8CF218A23E97C00E757ECE97E7908F Direct.aspx?id=2D3499F AE0D6EC74EE 5AC1068C96527F8EF8AD16A5722AE46ACFBB0 1BC8CF218A23E97C00E757ECE97E7908F Direct.aspx?id=2D3499F AE0D6EC74EE 5AC1068C96527F8EF8AD16A5722AE46ACFBB0 1BC8CF218A23E97C00E757ECE97E7908F  6:14

14 Differences from 1 st marriages  More egalitarian  More open  More pragmatic  Less romantic  More willing to confront conflict  Why do you think this is?

15 Child Well-Being in Stepfamilies  Less well adjusted  More behavioral or social problems  Lower academic achievement  Lower social competence & responsibility  Teen pregnancy  School dropout  Adult relationships  Children’s adjustment in step families varies  Often initial declines in cognitive and social competence after the remarriage  tend to diminish over time  similar to other crisis events

16 Factors Influencing Adjustment  Gender and age  # of transitions  Marital quality  Parenting style changes  Discipline consistency

Perspectives: Structural Functionalism  According to functionalists, individuals have the greatest chance of success if they grow up in a traditional family with father instrumental and mother expressive

Perspectives: Conflict  Because family members compete for resources, stepfamilies create more conflict because of additional family members and blurred roles

Perspectives: Symbolic Interactionism  Meanings of the configuration of a family are constructed, and reconstructed, through increased interactions  Like all relationships, must have interaction