What Constitutes a Family? Investigating Who Attends Family Events in Postdivorce Families
Objective: To explain whether divorced parents’ ex-partners and current partners belong to the family, and whether they both “jointly” do so. Background: It is uncertain who belongs to postdivorce families and how family boundaries become salient in family interactions. Method: We assessed whether divorced parents celebrated their child’s birthday together with their ex-partner (i.e., child’s biological parents), current partner (i.e., child’s stepparent), and jointly with both. Dutch Data (N=2,451) was analyzed using logistic regression. Results: Most parents celebrated the child’s birthday without the ex-partner, but with the current partner. One quarter celebrated with both. The ex-partners’ presence was more likely when parents’ and their current partners’ relationship with the ex-partner was good; and less likely when parents had repartnered and when the ex-partner had sole custody or additional biological or stepchildren. The presence of the current partner was more likely in case of coresidence with the biological parent and when the ex-partner had a new partner; and less likely when the ex-partner had sole custody and when parents’ relationship with the ex-partner was good. Conclusions: Child-related family rituals mostly involve the “new” stepparent rather than both biological parents. The effects of relationship quality, co-residence, repartnering and having additional biological or stepchildren highlight the importance of (step)parents’ willingness to interact with each other, structural opportunities for parent-child interactions, and parents’ shifting loyalties from their ex-partner to their new family.