A good Wednesday read for your Wednesday
Psychologist Wednesday Martin is writes about step families. From her recent post on Psychology Today:
“It’s hardest for stepmothers. The longitudinal studies of stepfamily life by psychologists James Bray and Mavis Hetherington and sociologist Constance Ahrons show that kids of all ages resent getting a stepmother more than getting a stepfather, and that they resent her for longer. In Hetherington’s study, less than 20% of adult stepchildren said they felt close to their stepmothers. And while more than half of adult stepkids told Ahrons they were happy about mom remarrying, less than 30% were happy that daddy had (I discuss the stepmother’s specific struggles at length in my book, Stepmonster). Finally, the longitudinal studies and interviews I did for my own book suggest that you don’t have to be a “homewrecker” to be resented: regardless of how the previous union ended, a stepmother is likely to be the lightning rod for his kids’ unhappiness and anger that their parents broke up.”
Read her full post here.
