Date of Graduation

1981

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ascertain what adolescents who become stepchildren between the ages of 13 and 18 believe to be the stressful and non-stressful aspects of stepfamily living. This study also attempted to determine if the level of stress for adolescent stepchildren does diminish over time when comparing subjects living in a stepfamily less than two years, two to three years, three to four years, and four to six years. The 63 volunteer subjects responded to a 41-item questionnaire from which the data for this study were obtained. The Pearson Product-Moment Correlation yielded a reliability coefficient of .89 between the test and retest. The questionnaire items represented 12 areas suggested as stressful by the current literature. These areas were: (1) discipline; (2) biological parent elsewhere; (3) compounded loss; (4) parent's and stepparent's understanding of the stepchild's feelings about the stepfamily; (5) pseudomutuality; (6) living with one parent before the remarriage; (7) unrealistic expectations; (8) divided loyalty; (9) family constellation; (10) desire for natural parents to reunite; (11) member of two households; and (12) social issues. A mean stress score for each of the 12 categories was computed from the subjects' responses. The possible responses for each question were: (1) 1 = not stressful; (2) 2 = slightly stressful; (3) 3 = somewhat stressful; and (4) 4 = very stressful. The category of discipline (mean stress score = 2.52) had the highest mean stress score of the 12 categories. The category pertaining to social issues (mean stress score = 1.50) had the lowest mean stress score of the 12 categories. Frequency counts were also computed for the following demographic data: (1) present age of the subjects; (2) sex; (3) the age at which the subjects became members of a stepfamily; (4) the number of years that the subjects had lived in a stepfamily; (5) the number of years that the subjects have lived with one parent prior to the remarriage; (6) the reason for the dissolution of the nuclear family; (7) the presence of stepsiblings; (8) the presence of half siblings; and (9) the presence of stepmother or stepfather. This study attempted to measure stress that adolescent stepchildren experience as a result of stepfamily living. One stress experienced by the subjects was computed to be just above "slightly stressful" (overall mean stress score = 2.21). This study also attempted to determine if the stress for adolescent stepchildren does diminish over time spent in the stepfamily. The results of this study indicate that those subjects living in a stepfamily two to three years experienced more stress (mean stress score = 2.49) than those subjects living in a stepfamily zero to two years (mean stress score = 1.96). This study also attempted to ascertain if those subjects who had spent a longer period of time with a single parent before the remarriage experienced more stress in stepfamily living. The results indicate that those subjects who had lived nine years or more with a single parent experienced the least amount of stress (mean stress score = 1.63). Those subjects who had lived zero to three years with a single parent experienced the highest amount of stress (mean stress score = 2.27). One filler item, "Feeling that your opinion as a teenager is not taken seriously" (mean stress score = 2.87) received the highest mean stress score of the 41 items on the questionnaire. The implications of the study suggest that stepfamily living may not be particularly stressful for adolescent stepchildren. Much of the stress experienced by adolescent stepchildren may be the result of their struggle through the developmental stage of adolescence.

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