“Like My Grandparent, But Not”: A Qualitative Investigation of Skip-Generation Stepgrandchild–Stepgrandparent Relationships

Families have become increasingly diverse and complex (Brown, Manning, & Stykes, 2015; Cherlin, 2010). This diversity and complexity have led to changes in how kinship, or family membership, is defined (Braithwaite et al., 2010). Traditional indicators of kinship, such as biological and legal ties, are still important, but family membership now is often socially constructed, defined by affective indicators (e.g., love, affection, close emotional ties) and instrumental connections (e.g., feelings of loyalty and obligation because of resources received). For diverse and complex families, kin membership is not always easily determined by outsiders and may even be a source of confusion and ambiguity for family members (Braithwaite et al., 2010; King, Boyd, & Thorsen, 2015).Issues surrounding family identity, belonging, and shared kinship are relevant in many types of complex families (e.g., adoptive, gay and lesbian, assisted reproductive technology), but they are critically important for stepfamilies because relational ties in stepfamilies may be quite convoluted. Stepfamilies often contain genetic kin (e.g., parents and children, half-siblings, grandparents and grandchildren), legal kin (e.g., husbands and wives, parents and children), and step-kin (stepparents and stepchildren, stepsiblings, stepgrandparents and stepgrandchildren). In stepfamilies, family identity and beliefs about shared kinship are related to the quality of relationships (Coleman, Ganong, Russell, & Frye, 2015; King et al., 2015; Suanet, van der Pas, & van Tilburg, 2013) and to individuals' well-being (Coleman et al., 2015). Understanding the processes by which stepfamily members create voluntary kin relationships and share family identity can help researchers better comprehend stepfamily dynamics as well as inform policymakers (Suanet et al., 2013) and practitioners (Burton & Hardaway, 2012). Understanding these processes in stepfamilies also may illuminate similar practices in other types of complex families.Stepfamilies are incompletely institutionalized; they must create and manage family boundaries without the benefit of clearly specified societal norms for family roles and behaviors (Cherlin, 1978). Roles and responsibilities must be defined and negotiated by stepfamily members themselves, which is a process that can be stressful if individuals disagree (Suanet et al., 2013). Many types of complex families are incompletely institutionalized, and these complex families may utilize similar strategies for creating and "doing family" and for making sense of their relationships. For instance, in families of color, the inclusion of "othermothers" and the roles taken by them are based on cultural norms and practices about families (e.g., kinscripts, gatekeeping by genetic kin, and an intention to make family boundaries flexible; Burton & Hardaway, 2012; Collins, 1995; Roy & Burton, 2007). We think it may be likely that similar processes are evident in the family identity practices of other types of diverse families, such as intergenerational stepfamilies. Many individuals who are part of marginalized families have voluntary or intentional kin (Braithwaite et al., 2010), and although there are likely to be differences in ethnicity, race, social class, and other cultural contexts in how these families function, researchers should also investigate the possibility of overlapping dynamics and strategies of how kin are defined in diverse types of complex families.INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY IDENTITYThe purpose of this study was to explore how stepgrandchildren think and feel about relationships with stepgrandparents, particularly in regard to their perceptions of stepgrandparents as kin. Stepfamilies remain a sizable segment of families in the United States (Lewis & Kreider, 2015). About 40% of all U.S. marriages involve a partner who has been married previously, and nearly two thirds of those remarriages include minor children from former relationships (Stykes & Guzzo, 2015). …