How the Birth of a Child Affects Involvement with Stepchildren.

This study investigates the effect of childbearing on parental involvement in stepfamilies and intact families, based on the reports of 1,905 stepparents and biological parents from the National Survey of Families and Households. Regression analysis indicates that involvement with children declines over time, especially among respondents with only stepchildren in the household. Respondents who have had a child between waves of the survey reduce parental involvement at a slower rate than respondents who did not have a child. These effects are explained by the children's age. The birth of a child has a similar effect on parental involvement in stepfamilies and intact families. These findings suggest that the addition of a half-sibling is not particularly beneficial to stepchildren and provides further evidence that couples with children from prior relationships should not make the decision to reproduce to "cement" stepfamily bonds. Key Words: childbearing, parental involvement, stepchildren, stepfamilies, stepparents. The birth of a child involves considerable reorganization of family life and parental responsibilities. Half of all remarried women, most of whom have children from prior unions, have children in their remarriages (Griffith, Koo, & Suchindran, 1985). This study investigates how the addition of a new half-sibling affects stepparents' relationships with stepchildren, specifically stepparents' participation in positive activities with their stepchildren. Prior research on this topic has been limited by static, cross-sectional research designs, nonrepresentative samples, and narrow stepfamily definitions that exclude first-married and cohabiting couples with children from prior relationships. Another problem is lack of comparison to intact (original two-parent) families. For instance, although there is a shortage of studies that examine the dynamics of biological parent-child relationships (Demo & Cox, 2000), cross-sectional studies suggest that biological fathers become progressively less involved in their children's lives and activities, closeness declines, and conflict increases, especially during adolescence (Cooksey & Fondell, 1996; Marsiglio, 1991; Rossi & Rossi, 1990). Nonetheless, studies finding changes in stepparent-stepchild relationships over time often attribute the findings to the unique stresses and/or adaptations of stepfamily life (e.g., Papernow, 1993). Similar types of explanations are offered in relation to the effects of childbearing in stepfamilies, without corresponding knowledge of this process in intact families (e.g., Bernstein, 1989). The present study addresses the limitations of previous research in several key ways. I use longitudinal, nationally representative data, dynamic analysis to assess change over time, and a broad definition that includes first-married and cohabiting couples as stepfamilies. Although child-bearing is less common in cohabiting than in remarried stepfamilies (Wineberg & McCarthy, 1998), it is important to include cohabiting couples because the majority of stepfamilies start out with cohabitation (Bumpass, Raley, & Sweet, 1995). I also include a comparison group of original two-parent families to determine whether the birth of a (half)sibling has a unique effect on parental involvement in stepfamilies. Moreover, this study includes both families who have had a child and families who have not had a child between survey years to distinguish the effect of a birth from normal changes in parental involvement over time. BACKGROUND The Dynamics of Stepparent-Stepchild Relationships Studies consistently show that children in stepfamilies score lower on measures of social and emotional well-being compared to children from intact families (Cherlin & Furstenberg, 1994; McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994). Low levels of parental involvement among stepparents and low-quality stepparent-stepchild relationships are among the factors underlying this discrepancy (for a full review of this literature, see Coleman, Ganong, & Fine, 2000). …