Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This is a qualitative study, comprising of life-story interviews with fifty children, born in 1958, which examines the long-term experiences of growing up in stepfamilies. The study explores this topic at two levels: the subjective experience of growing up in stepfamilies, of managing transitions, losses and the complexities of relationships, and also within the context of intergenerational family patterns, social, familial, and economic resources and gender relations as they evolve over time. Research themes include: communication and discipline within families; the role of the extended family; the absent parent, and gender. An overriding concern was with the factors which help or hinder stepchildren in the long-term. The authors aimed to contextualise the experience of growing up in stepfamilies, rather than isolating this experience within the stepfamily form, and to explore the wider influences of gender assumptions, the continuing or changing patterns of communication and discipline through successive transitions, the relevance of the relationship to the other parents, and the often crucial roles of the extended family, community, school and economic factors. Through the life story method, which attempts to weave together multiple perspectives, the authors draw from sociological and social-historical interpretations, clinical experience in child and adolescent psychiatry, and the systems approach used in family therapy. There are 47 transcripts and 5 interview summaries.

Main Topics:

Stepchildren; families; family life; family relationships; childhood; parent-child relationships; parents; childcare; discipline; extended families; marriage; divorce; broken families; gender; death; divorce; United Kingdom.

Purposive selection/case studies

selected from the National Child Development Study, cases selected to represent balanced georgraphi

Face-to-face interview