The Stepparent Role: How It Is Defined and Negotiated in Stepfamilies in New Zealand

<p>Many children in New Zealand spend at least part of their lives growing up in stepfamilies. Yet despite the prevalence of stepfamilies and indications that they are increasing, there is little certainty regarding the parenting role stepparents should adopt to benefit their stepchildren the most. This ambiguity is further reflected in the law; with stepparents having few legal responsibilities to their stepchildren. This research sought to identify how individuals define and negotiate the stepparent‘s role in newly formed stepfamilies in New Zealand. Previous research and clinical practice indicates that how this role is defined is closely tied to stepfamily well-being. However there is still a great deal we do not understand about how stepfamily members construct this role, the nature of change over time, and how it is negotiated among stepfamily members. One hundred and five stepfamilies that had been cohabiting full-time for less than four years completed questionnaires assessing individual perceptions of stepparent roles and stepfamily functioning. Three stepfamily members completed questionnaires at two points in time, twelve months apart– a target stepchild between the ages of seven and eleven, the resident biological parent, and stepparent. Results suggest that stepparents, parents and children perceive stepparents to play active roles in both the warmth and control aspects of the stepparent role and these perceptions change minimally over a twelve-month period. When discrepancies between actual and ideal role scores were examined (intra-role discrepancies), all stepfamily members reported wanting the stepparent to be more involved in warmth behaviours than they actually were. However, although parents and stepparents reported ideally wanting stepparents to be more involved in control behaviours as well, children wanted them to be less involved in control behaviours than they were currently. Role discrepancies at time 1 were associated with aspects of stepfamily functioning at time 2, particularly for children.There was some evidence that role discrepancies reduced over time. In particular, stepparents and children reported lower inter-role discrepancies (higher role agreement) and stepparents and children both reported lower intra-role discrepancies over time. When role discrepancies between stepfamily members were examined (inter-role discrepancies), stepchildren reported wanting stepparents to be less involved in warmth and control dimensions than either parents or stepparents. Regression analyses revealed that children‘s inter and intra role discrepancies were significantly associated with their reports of stepfamily functioning twelve months later, after taking into account the stepparent‘s actual involvement. Adults in stepfamilies used various strategies to negotiate the stepparent role; including partner discussions, talks with children, checking in for feedback with children and biological parents, and gate keeping behaviours by the biological parent. Role negotiation was more likely to occur in the following twelve months when stepfamily functioning was more problematic at time 1, and there was some evidence that this led to improvements in functioning over time. This was not the case for gate keeping behaviours—while these were reported to be more frequently used when stepfamily functioning was problematic; they had a detrimental effect on the quality of the stepparent-stepchild relationships. These findings have important implications for organisations that work with, and make decisions affecting stepfamilies.</p>

The Stepparent Role: How It Is Defined and Negotiated in Stepfamilies in New Zealand

<p>Many children in New Zealand spend at least part of their lives growing up in stepfamilies. Yet despite the prevalence of stepfamilies and indications that they are increasing, there is little certainty regarding the parenting role stepparents should adopt to benefit their stepchildren the most. This ambiguity is further reflected in the law; with stepparents having few legal responsibilities to their stepchildren. This research sought to identify how individuals define and negotiate the stepparent‘s role in newly formed stepfamilies in New Zealand. Previous research and clinical practice indicates that how this role is defined is closely tied to stepfamily well-being. However there is still a great deal we do not understand about how stepfamily members construct this role, the nature of change over time, and how it is negotiated among stepfamily members. One hundred and five stepfamilies that had been cohabiting full-time for less than four years completed questionnaires assessing individual perceptions of stepparent roles and stepfamily functioning. Three stepfamily members completed questionnaires at two points in time, twelve months apart– a target stepchild between the ages of seven and eleven, the resident biological parent, and stepparent. Results suggest that stepparents, parents and children perceive stepparents to play active roles in both the warmth and control aspects of the stepparent role and these perceptions change minimally over a twelve-month period. When discrepancies between actual and ideal role scores were examined (intra-role discrepancies), all stepfamily members reported wanting the stepparent to be more involved in warmth behaviours than they actually were. However, although parents and stepparents reported ideally wanting stepparents to be more involved in control behaviours as well, children wanted them to be less involved in control behaviours than they were currently. Role discrepancies at time 1 were associated with aspects of stepfamily functioning at time 2, particularly for children.There was some evidence that role discrepancies reduced over time. In particular, stepparents and children reported lower inter-role discrepancies (higher role agreement) and stepparents and children both reported lower intra-role discrepancies over time. When role discrepancies between stepfamily members were examined (inter-role discrepancies), stepchildren reported wanting stepparents to be less involved in warmth and control dimensions than either parents or stepparents. Regression analyses revealed that children‘s inter and intra role discrepancies were significantly associated with their reports of stepfamily functioning twelve months later, after taking into account the stepparent‘s actual involvement. Adults in stepfamilies used various strategies to negotiate the stepparent role; including partner discussions, talks with children, checking in for feedback with children and biological parents, and gate keeping behaviours by the biological parent. Role negotiation was more likely to occur in the following twelve months when stepfamily functioning was more problematic at time 1, and there was some evidence that this led to improvements in functioning over time. This was not the case for gate keeping behaviours—while these were reported to be more frequently used when stepfamily functioning was problematic; they had a detrimental effect on the quality of the stepparent-stepchild relationships. These findings have important implications for organisations that work with, and make decisions affecting stepfamilies.</p>

A Multi-Level Analysis of Role Negotiation: A Bona Fide Group Approach to Work Team Socialization

This study used a multi-level analysis to gain a comprehensive understanding of work team socialization as a process that extends beyond work team and organizational boundaries. Findings, based on interviews of 27 IT employees organized into teams, reaffirmed some previous research on newcomer information seeking, but provided a more complex understanding of information seeking during socialization by identifying the importance of nexus or overlap with other internal and external groups. Nexus 1 included cross-functional meetings, as well as external workshops and conferences involving industry peers. Individual and group communication with members of internal and external groups helped employees negotiate and learn their roles as well as led to changes in their understanding of their team and organization. This multi-level analysis identified how individual, group, internal organizational communication, and extra-organizational communication all contribute to the process of socialization for team members.

The Socialization of Unpaid Family Caregivers: A Scoping Review

As unpaid family caregiving of older adults becomes increasingly prevalent, it is imperative to understand how family caregivers are socialized and how they understand the caregiving role. This PRISMA-ScR-based scoping review examines the published literature between 1995–2019 on the socialization of potential and current unpaid family caregivers of older adults. Of 4,599 publications identified, 47 were included. Three perspectives of socialization were identified: (1) role acculturation; (2) role negotiation and identification; and (3) specialized role learning. The findings show how socialization involves different contexts (e.g., cultures), imperatives for action (e.g., circumstances), socialization agents (e.g., family), processes (e.g., modeling), and internal (e.g., normalization) and external (e.g., identification) consequences for caregivers. Future research could fruitfully explore how caregivers manage key turning points within the socialization process, disengage from the caregiving role, and negotiate the socialization and individualization processes within diverse cultural and funding contexts.

The Effects of Workplace Inclusion on Employee Assimilation Outcomes

This study investigates the relationship between coworker inclusion and assimilation outcomes. To begin, this paper reviews components of assimilation and inclusion that are thought to co-occur in the workplace. In addition, employees of a large university in the Pacific Northwest were surveyed electronically to investigate the extent to which inclusion and assimilation outcomes are related. Finally, a discussion is offered that details the study’s findings, that is, task- and social-based aspects of inclusion are related positively to assimilation outcomes (i.e., acculturation, job competencies, coworker familiarity, supervisor familiarity, member recognition, involvement, and role negotiation). Moreover, these conclusions remained generally the same for newcomers versus old-timers, as well as for student versus non-student samples.

“Leftover Women” or Single by Choice: Gender Role Negotiation of Single Professional Women in Contemporary China

In today’s Chinese society, we see more and more well-educated, well-paid, and independent career women. However, as traditional femininity has been associated with subordination and sacrifice, well-educated career women are perceived as less feminine and less like proper “women” or prospective wives. Career women who remain single until their late twenties have been referred to within Chinese popular culture as “leftover women.” The current research explores the negative discourses that single career-oriented women encounter in their lives, as well as their own perceptions on work, marriage, and gender roles. Through in-depth interviews with 30 single, professional women, I examined whether these women are really “leftover” on the marriage market and how they perceive their independent, single life. The study aims to explore how these career-oriented women live within conflicting social expectations and value systems, as well as how they perceive gender roles, marriage, and career.

Parents’ Perception regarding Their Participation in the Care of Hospitalised Children at a Tertiary Government Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi

Parental participation is one of the cornerstones of paediatric practice. Evidence from the literature has shown that effective parental participation depends on parents’ preparedness, adequate communication between parents and nurses, and the negotiation process. However, little is known about the perception of these parents regarding their participation in the care of their hospitalised children. The aim of the study was to explore the perceptions of parents regarding their participation in the care of their children who were hospitalised at a government hospital in Malawi. A descriptive qualitative study was carried out using a semi-structured interview guide to collect data from 20 parents in the paediatric department. Thematic analysis was done guided by Colaizzi’s method. Three main themes emerged from the data and these were lack of role negotiation by healthcare workers, inadequate role preparation for parents, and parents’ perceptions of the care they provided to their hospitalised children. The study findings showed that parents view their participation in the care of hospitalised children as appropriate, important and satisfying. However, gaps exist in the way they participate in the care of their hospitalised children due to inadequate role negotiation and role preparation for parents and inadequate information from nurses. The researchers recommend that management should develop protocols and guidelines for the implementation of parental participation in the care of hospitalised children to promote best practices and quality children’s care.

The English School and postcolonial state agency: social roles and order management in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific

This paper contributes to recent revisions to the English School (ES) which have sought to redress its Eurocentrism. It argues that, despite providing necessary accounts of non-Western international societies and the agency of non-European polities in the expansion of global international society, there remains a gap in capturing the agency of postcolonial states in contributing to order negotiation and management in contemporary international order. It proposes a social role negotiation framework to address the gap, which it situates within a holistic conceptual framework that supplements an ES understanding of international order between states with a world-system perspective on how states are embedded within global capitalism, and a neo-Gramscian focus on social forces as the key agents contesting and shaping states' foreign policy orientation. It highlights two major types of postcolonial state agency within international order: contesting and limiting great powers' legitimate exercise of power; and establishing responsibilities towards building and managing order vis-a-vis great powers. The paper illustrates the utility of the social roles framework with the example of ASEAN in Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific order.