Children of Same-Sex Couples

As the United States becomes more accepting of sexual minority people, more opportunities have become available for same-sex couples to become parents. Blended families with a new stepparent, planned families via insemination, as well as adoption and fostering are changing what defines a family. As the definition of a family changes, so must the ways in which schools interact with each family type. The shared experiences of sexual minority parents and their children are explored, and recommendations for schools are made.

INFLUENCE OF ATTACHMENT STYLES ON ESTABLISHMENT OF ADOLESCENTS’ SELF ESTEEM AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM BLENDED FAMILIES IN KIAMBU COUNTY

Attachment styles adopted by parents are essential in development of adolescent psychosocial wellbeing. This phenomenon is more profound in blended families where there are multiple relationships that can lead to many challenges. However, with appropriate attachment styles adopted by step parents such challenges can be mitigated. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of attachment styles on adolescents’ self-esteem among secondary school students from blended family in Kiambu County, Kenya. Attachment theory by Bowlby guided this study. The study adopted a mixed method approach, descriptive causal effect design and pragmatic paradigm to guide the study. Multi-stage sampling method and inclusive /exclusive criteria were used. Firstly the study adopted survey method as the sampling technique because the total population of adolescents that came from blended families was unknown. Simple random sampling was used to select 9 schools and also determine the 5 classes to be sampled in each of these schools. The 5 classes had a population of 55 students each. A short questionnaire with demographic data of students was issued to all the students (2475) in a bid to elicit the adolescents from the said classes that came from blended families in the 9 schools. A total number of 208 adolescents from blended families in the 9 schools was elicited and this was considered a sufficient sample size. In addition, simple random sampling was used to sample 24 respondents to form 4 focus groups while purposive sampling was used to sample 4 counsellors from 9 schools for in-depth interview. Data was collected using questionnaires, counsellors’ interview schedule and focus group discussions. Inventory for Parent and Peer Attachment Scale and Rosenberg Scales were used as measuring tools. Data was analysed through descriptive statistics, statistical assumption tests, correlation tests- T- test and ANOVA analysis while qualitative data was analysed by use of narrative analysis. Findings were presented in form of tables while interview data was presented in narrative form. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the National Council for Science and Technology, the Kiambu County Government, Ethical approval was sought from accredited IERC (Institutional Ethics Review Committee) as well as a written informed consent from the school administration. Results indicated that attachment styles adopted by step parents influence the establishment of adolescent self- esteem. The study will benefit Ministry of Education, counsellors, parents, families and society.

INFLUENCE OF ATTACHMENT STYLES ON ESTABLISHMENT OF ADOLESCENTS’ IDENTITY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM BLENDED FAMILIES IN KIAMBU COUNTY

Parents adopt different attachment styles in parenting their children. This phenomenon is more profound in blended families where there are many relationships that can lead to many problems. However, with appropriate attachment styles adopted by step parents such challenges can be mitigated. The purpose of this study was to examine influence of attachment styles on establishment of adolescents’ identity among secondary school students from blended family in Kiambu County, Kenya. Attachment theory by Bowlby guided this study. The study adopted a mixed method approach, descriptive causal effect design and pragmatic paradigm to guide the study. Multi-stage sampling method and inclusive /exclusive criteria were used. To begin with, the study adopted survey method as the sampling technique because the total population of adolescents that came from blended families was unknown. Simple random sampling was used to select 9 schools and also determine the 5 classes to be sampled in each of these schools. The 5 classes had a population of 55 students each. A short questionnaire with demographic data of students was issued to all the students (2475) in a bid to elicit the adolescents from the said classes that came from blended families in the 9 schools. A total number of 208 adolescents from blended families in the 9 schools was elicited and this was considered a sufficient sample size. In addition, simple random sampling was used to sample 24 respondents to form 4 focus groups while purposive sampling was used to sample 4 counsellors from 9 schools for in-depth interview. Data was collected using questionnaires, counsellors’ interview schedule and focus group discussions. Inventory for Parent and Peer Attachment Scale and Identity Style Inventory were used as measuring tools. Data was analysed through descriptive statistics, statistical assumption tests, correlation tests- T- test, and MANCOVA analysis while qualitative data was analysed by use of narrative analysis. Findings were presented in form of tables while interview data was presented in narrative form. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the National Council for Science and Technology, the Kiambu County Government, Ethical approval was sought from accredited IERC (Institutional Ethics Review Committee) as well as a written informed consent from the school administration. Results indicated that attachment styles adopted by step parents influence the establishment of adolescent informational, commitment and diffuse avoidant identity styles but not normative identity style. The study will benefit Ministry of Education, counsellors, parents, families and society.

U.S. Family Law Along the Slippery Slope: the limits of a sexual rights strategy for polyamorous parents

Families in the United States are rapidly changing, and the normative familial model of two married, monogamous, heterosexual parents with children no longer reflects the majority of U.S. families. Nonetheless, state incentive-based policies and discriminatory family laws continue to enforce heteronormative monogamy. Recent changes to the U.S. legal landscape have produced limited formal recognition and protections for same-sex couples and LGBTQ parents, and even these narrow rights are withheld from other diverse familial configurations including families with polyamorous parents. This article uses the concept of sexual citizenship to frame the analysis of U.S. family courts’ normative construction of family, identifying striking parallels between family courts’ historical and contemporary prejudicial treatment of LGBTQ parents and the institution’s similar delegitimization and denigration of polyamorous parents today. This paper reviews polyamorous parents’ efforts towards achieving legal and societal legitimatization, finding significant parallels with legal strategies LGBTQ parents utilized to seek legal recognition and protection prior to federal recognition of same-sex marriage. This paper highlights the inadequacies of such a formal sexual citizenship approach, finding that a limited strategy of accumulating specific sexual rights fails to address non-monogamy’s more radical cultural presence as well as the (non-legal) informal aspects of belonging needed to improve the livability of polyamorous parents’ and their children’s lives. This paper concludes with recommendations for improving the treatment of non-traditional families including LGBTQ, polyamorous, and other blended families, both within and outside the legal institution.

Effects of the Blended Family on Parenting Styles and Emotional Regulation among Tertiary Students

This research examines the blended family effects on parenting styles and emotional regulation among tertiary students through a sequential explanatory mixed-method design. Through quantitative data gathered, an interview was conducted to have a deeper sense of the information collected. A total of 113 respondents were purposively selected to answer the instruments and 10 of them were chosen to participate in an interview for the qualitative part of the study. It was revealed that most respondents have authoritarian parents and are emotionally adjusting. In addition, there is no significant relationship between parenting style and emotional regulation. Furthermore, there is no significant difference in parenting styles and emotional regulation when grouped according to profile such as age and duration. The results gathered were supported by sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino psychology) which discussed the maturity, culture, and values of Filipinos and their families. These data were used to construct a counseling program to help students with blended families adapt to the changes that they will encounter.

Kinship through the Twofold Prism of Law and Anthropology

Legal practitioners have much to gain by drawing on findings and insights from anthropological studies of kinship. This chapter first sketches the background of kinship studies in anthropology (including criticisms of the functionalist approach that led to a turn away from kinship studies), summarizes key questions that have preoccupied kinship scholars, and draws two important lessons that can help inform legal practice. The first is the profoundly social and cultural nature of kinship (as opposed to biological); the second is the observation that what may nowadays, at first glance, appear as new ways of organizing and expressing kinship ties in fact show more continuity than disruption. The author illustrates these lessons on the basis of four examples: (a) blended families; (b) same-sex unions; (c) the role of fathers in childrearing; and (d) sexual permissiveness. The chapter next details two specific contexts in which attention to an anthropological approach to kinship can productively inform legal practice. The first involves new advances in assisted reproductive technologies (ART) that challenge the more ‘traditional’ understandings of what constitutes a family as expressed in many state legal systems. The second is the enduring importance of kinship as a form of support that provides reliable protection against the increased vulnerability caused by globalization, marginalization, and persecution. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on the inherent tension between the idea of universal human rights and the constraints on individual self-determination that are often part and parcel of the social support that kinship systems provide.

With Age Comes …? An Examination of Gendered Differences in the Resource Advantages Associated with Parental Age in Norway

Using high-quality register data, this paper constructs an empirical portrait of older parenthood in contemporary Norway and explores gender differences in the extent to which older parents are better-resourced parents. Like most family issues, academic and policy discussions of older parenthood have tended to focus on the experiences of women. Although motherhood at older ages was not uncommon in previous generations, rapid social and family changes in recent decades mean that today’s older mother is far more likely to be having her first child. She may have focused on obtaining a good education and then on establishing her career and finding a supportive partner. When viewed through this motherhood lens, older parents are often portrayed as being relatively well-off financially and enjoying stable family lives. Viewed through the fatherhood lens, however, the family literature suggests that age might not be as strong a marker of socio-economic advantage. Our findings show that this is the case: While older fathers are, on average, more socio-economically advantaged than younger fathers around the time their children are born, their relative advantage is narrower than what we observe when older mothers and younger mothers are compared. Gender differences in the family history profiles of older parents appear to explain some of the differentials we document. The children of older fathers are more likely to be born into blended families and less likely to born to a mother who postponed her first birth than are the children born to older mothers. The results suggest that the meaning of paternal age and maternal age differs: paternal age is not as strong a marker of socio-economic advantages and resources for children as maternal age is.

Wicked Stepmother, Best Friend, and the Unaccounted Space Between

Blended families are increasingly common, yet our understanding of these families—especially the role of stepmothers—is limited and lacks a critical focus. Such lack is a problem when recognizing that the stepmother is one of the most culturally stigmatized family positions. Guided by family systems theory, which recognizes the family as an interdependent system where roles are created and maintained through interactions, we seek to provide a deeper understanding of how stepmothers navigate the difficulties that accompany their stigmatized role. Instead of writing about the stepmother role in the family system from an outside perspective, we use critical duoethnography to write from inside the system by composing first-person, collaborative, reflexive accounts of our lived experiences as stepmothers that highlight the unique work we do within our blended families. Our accounts engage an intersectional lens where we embrace our layered identities—as stepmothers, women, feminists, and academics who hail from the working class and have differing ethnic backgrounds—to write ourselves out of the simplistic, and often negative, cultural ideas about stepmothers. Our primary goal is to provide a dynamic illustration of the nuanced, messy, and multifaceted experiences of (step)m(Other)ing—hence the strategic use of parentheses to encapsulate such experiences. We pinpoint the struggles we encounter in striving to find a balance between establishing a close bond with our (step)children and taking on a more authoritative parental role—all with the threat of the “wicked stepmother” stereotype looming over us. Ideally, our insider accounts help to untangle the lived experiences of stepmothers from the grip of a pervasive, distorted, denigrating, and essentializing cultural construct.