Product Description
Advice for children of divorced or remarried parents on adjusting to life with a stepfamily. ... Read more

Product Description
Within the next ten years, it is projected that more children will be brought up in stepfamilies than in intact nuclear families. Yet pastors' skills for marriage and family therapy are almost exclusively based on the assumptions of the so-called traditional family. Townsend shows ministers and pastoral counselors how they can provide effective marriage and family counseling for this growing segment of the population. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides comprehensive information and guidance for addressing the special needs and problems of stepfamilies in therapy. It examines the complex issues facing stepfamilies--including grief over divorce, negative stereotypes of stepfamilies, child custody and visitation disputes, unrealistic expectations of family life, and confusing relationships with extended family--and offers therapeutic approaches, strategies, and interventions for effective assessment and treatment. ... Read more

Product Description
Whether you're a clinical therapist or volunteer group leader, Working with Groups on Family Issues gives you tools for teaching people how to cope with today's family relationships, including divorce, single parenting, stepfamilies, gay and lesbian partners, working partners, and more.Twenty-five 30-60 minute structured exercises combine the knowledge of 24 marriage and family experts with practical learning activities to help you move individuals, couples, children, and families toward positive change, regardless of your expertise in addressing family issues. ... Read more

Product Description
Essential reading for those who wish to understand the meaning of stepfamily relationships in America today
... Read more

Product Description
The growth of stepfamilies has been one of the most dramatic changes in British family life in recent decades. Britain today has the highest divorce rate in Europe, and by the early 1990s one in twelve children in Britain were already living in stepfamilies. Stepfamilies formed by remarriage after death were once a common experience, but in the first half of this century, as parental death became more unusual, they became unfamiliar rarities, and much of the common understanding of their dynamics was lost. The recent very rapid growth in divorce and remarriage has exposed millions of adults and children to life situations which are surprisingly little understood, either at the level of common wisdom, or through research. It is widely assumed that children referred to social and health professionals come above all from broken or reconstituted families, and until recently the interpretation of stepfamilies was dominated by analyses of clinical data. However, in large scale sample based studies it has been found that the experiences of children in stepfamilies and those growing up in 'intact' families are not as different as had previously been assumed. This study of fifty children born in 1958 is the first in Britain to examine these long-term differences using evidence gleaned from such a large and reliable sample. The key themes around which the research has been structured are gender, communication and discipline within families, the role of the extended family, the absent parent, and, above all, the factors which help or hinder stepchildren in the long-term. The authors emphasise how change is possible not only in childhood, but also in adulthood. Drawing together sociological and social historical interpretations through the life story method with clinical experience in child and adolescent psychiatry and the family systems approach used in family therapy, ... Read more

Product Description
This is a practical guide for step-parents to help them in the difficult process of forging relationships with another person's children. It offers sensible and practical advice for dealing with conflicts and the inevitable jealousies which arise in this complex relationship (especially when preceded by divorce). The book also covers issues such as discipline, financial contribution, responsibility for welfare, decision-making on lifestyle, and understanding boundaries. It features "live" case studies to illustrate the advice given. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

omits four essential topics
I have specialized in providing professional education and therapy to divorced, courting, and re/wedded couples since 1981. I am 66, a stepgrandson, stepson, and ex-stepfather and stepbrother, an invited Board member of the Stepfamily Association of America, a contributing editor to 'Your Stepfamily Online,' and the author of six published books on wound-healing, communications, and high-nurturance family relationships.

Author Boyd is a veteran stepmother, not a seasoned therapist. She provides helpful anecdotes readers can relate to, and offers advice in an authoritarian style. However, like most authors in this genre, she omits at least four critical points that renders her book largely impractical:

1) why and how to assess and reduce co-parents' psychological wounds from a low-nurturance childhood (vs. divorce);

2) the origin and impacts of blocked grief in adults and kids, and how to spot and reduce it;

3) co-parent unawareness of five key topics: (a) normal personality formation, composition, and function; (b) keys to high-nurturance families and relationships, (c) effective communication skills, (d) healthy 3-level grief, and (e) stepfamily realities, norms, and implications. and...

4) little effective re/marital and co-parenting help (i.e. courtship coaching, classes, informed counseling, co-parent support groups) available in most communities and the media.

In my clinical experience, these factors will often block motivated adults from following well-meant stepfamily advice, as in this book. If ignored, the factors inexorably promote choosing the wrong people to re/wed, for the wrong reasons, at the wrong time - and subsequent stresses and re/divorce. Awareness, acceptance, and discussion of these (and related) factors can reduce the first three stressors, and help to achieve high-nurturance stepfamilies.

[...]

I had to put this book down.
This was a difficult read. It is printed in Great Britain and written for that audience.Therefore there are subtleties that were lost on this American.Chapter 2 is devoted to meeting step children.By the time youhave step-parent issues, you're probably way beyond concerns about how tomeet the stepchildren.By chapter 4 I was done with the book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a practical guide for step-parents to help them in the difficult process of forging relationships with another person's children. It offers sensible and practical advice for dealing with conflicts and the inevitable jealousies which arise in this complex relationship (especially when preceded by divorce). The book also covers issues such as discipline, financial contribution, responsibility for welfare, decision-making on lifestyle, and understanding boundaries. It features "live" case studies to illustrate the advice given. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

omits four essential topics
I have specialized in providing professional education and therapy to divorced, courting, and re/wedded couples since 1981. I am 66, a stepgrandson, stepson, and ex-stepfather and stepbrother, an invited Board member of the Stepfamily Association of America, a contributing editor to 'Your Stepfamily Online,' and the author of six published books on wound-healing, communications, and high-nurturance family relationships.

Author Boyd is a veteran stepmother, not a seasoned therapist. She provides helpful anecdotes readers can relate to, and offers advice in an authoritarian style. However, like most authors in this genre, she omits at least four critical points that renders her book largely impractical:

1) why and how to assess and reduce co-parents' psychological wounds from a low-nurturance childhood (vs. divorce);

2) the origin and impacts of blocked grief in adults and kids, and how to spot and reduce it;

3) co-parent unawareness of five key topics: (a) normal personality formation, composition, and function; (b) keys to high-nurturance families and relationships, (c) effective communication skills, (d) healthy 3-level grief, and (e) stepfamily realities, norms, and implications. and...

4) little effective re/marital and co-parenting help (i.e. courtship coaching, classes, informed counseling, co-parent support groups) available in most communities and the media.

In my clinical experience, these factors will often block motivated adults from following well-meant stepfamily advice, as in this book. If ignored, the factors inexorably promote choosing the wrong people to re/wed, for the wrong reasons, at the wrong time - and subsequent stresses and re/divorce. Awareness, acceptance, and discussion of these (and related) factors can reduce the first three stressors, and help to achieve high-nurturance stepfamilies.

[...]

I had to put this book down.
This was a difficult read. It is printed in Great Britain and written for that audience.Therefore there are subtleties that were lost on this American.Chapter 2 is devoted to meeting step children.By the time youhave step-parent issues, you're probably way beyond concerns about how tomeet the stepchildren.By chapter 4 I was done with the book. ... Read more

Product Description
This study examines stepfamilies in Hong Kong where information on the issues is scarce. The book explores how aspirations and relationships in marriages have changed and how parenting practices are influenced. The findings of the study reveal that social attitudes towards stepfamilies and stepparenting are rather negative in Hong Kong, parental perceptions and parenting behaviour in the stepfamilies are affected by this. Some traditional values are still influencial in contemporary Hong Kong Chinese families, however, stepmothers have taken unconventional roles within a family structure which conflict with the tradition. The book aims to provide insights into the dynamics of stepfamilies in a societal context and aims to enhance the understanding of culture and gender-sensitivity. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a study examining levels of solidarity among full-, step-, and half-sibling groups in remarried families in the United States. This study relies on three sources of data: observations in a series of Blended Family Workshops; a 'Family of Orientation' assignment in which college students reflect upon their siblings and the family in which they were raised; and, the General Social Survey (1986, 1994, and 2002). The results demonstrate that high divorce and remarriage rates have created a more fluid definition of kinship. ... Read more

Product Description
Examines step families through real case studies illustrated by photographs, strip artwork and diagrams. This book is intended as a reading tool in the presentation of this topic to young people, teachers and parents. It also includes a list of contact addresses. ... Read more

Product Description
Proposes positive approaches to conflicts such as lack of family unity, discipline difficulties, sexual problems, loyalty issues, and getting along with new brothers and sisters which often become the points of contention in stepfamilies. ... Read more

Product Description