Relationships to stepfathers and biological fathers in adulthood: Complementary, substitutional, or neglected?

What Narrows the Stepgap? Closeness Between Parents and Adult (Step)Children in Germany

“…Schnettler and Steinbach () analyzed the same data set and found that the discrepancy in perceived parental care and closeness narrows as the genetic resemblance of siblings increases. Klaus, Nauck, and Steinbach () found that substantial proportions of children reported stronger bonds with their biological father than with their stepfather (23% and 30% for emotional closeness and relational strength, respectively); however, because only one child per family was included in the design, this study could not shed light on differential parental affection toward different children. In a longitudinal analysis, Manning and Smock () found no effect of the addition of new coresident stepchildren on shifts in fathers' child support for nonresidential biological children.…”

Continuity and Change in Stepfather–Stepchild Closeness Between Adolescence and Early Adulthood

“…Close, supportive parent–child relationships are thought to be especially important for adolescents in stepfamilies because these adolescents are more vulnerable to peer influence and at greater risk for poor outcomes (Hetherington & Kelly, ). Studies suggest that stepfathers do not decline in importance in supporting their stepchildren after those children grow up and leave the household (Klaus, Nauck, & Steinbach, ), although the form of this support may change. Ganong et al (, 408) reported a number of ways that stepparents continue to provide important support to stepchildren as they develop.…”

Families and Health: A Review

“…Empirical studies-primarily from the US-generally indicate that children with separated or divorced parents tend to score worse than children who live with both biological parents on measures of a range of behavioral, emotional, social, or cognitive outcomes (for overviews see Amato 2010;Jeynes 2006;Sweeney 2010) and the resulting inequalities have been shown to-potentially-last through adulthood (Kalmijn 2008(Kalmijn , 2013Klaus et al 2012;Steinbach 2013). Because the majority of theoretical approaches employed to explain the differences in child well-being among nuclear, single-parent, and separated/divorced families rely at least in part upon concepts of stress, coping, risk and resilience, Amato (2000Amato ( : 1271 suggested an integrating 'divorce-stress-adjustment perspective'.…”