Abstract:
The past few decades have seen significant changes in household arrangements in much of the developed world. Fewer and later marriages, rising rates of cohabitation, divorce and lone parenthood, and later childbirth characterise what some call the 'second demographic transition' (van de Kaa, 1987).
One outcome is a growing number of stepfamilies where a parent, whether single, separated, widowed or divorced, forms a new marriage or partnership. However, despite the rising incidence of stepfamilies and the demographic and social differences between stepfamilies and traditional families with two biological parents, researchers concerned with family life and parenting were relatively slow in acknowledging the importance of such non-traditional families (Ferri and Smith, 1998, Utting, 1995).
There has been an increase in social science research on stepfamilies in recent years but much remains to be done (Coleman et al. 2000). For example, a number of studies explore the effect of living in a stepparent family on children, including their psychological well-being. Perhaps surprisingly, though, little research has considered the potential psychological impacts on the parents and this forms the focus of the proposed study, which examines whether stepparenting influences mental health using secondary data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS).
Department:
Department of Geography & Geosciences, University of St Andrews
University of Dundee
University of Stirling
Duration:
1 June 2006 to 31 May 2007
Grant Type:
Research Fellowship
Publications
Boyle, P. et al. (Forthcoming) Do stepparents have worse mental health
than parents in first families? A birth cohort analysis, submitted
to Journal of Health and Social Behaviour
Boyle, P. et al. (2010) Chapter in UPTAP Volume
Boyle, P. et al. (2008) UPTAP Research Findings
Presentations
Feijten, P., Boyle, P.J., Feng, Z. and Gayle, V. (2008) Does stepparenting
influence mental health? European Association of Population Studies
Conference, Barcelona, July 9-11.
Feijten, P., Boyle, P.J., Feng, Z. and Gayle, V. (2008) Does being
a step-parent influence your mental health? UPTAP meeting for the
General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, February 25
Boyle, P.J., Feijten, P., Feng, Z. and Gayle, V. (2007) Does being
a step-parent influence your mental health? British Society for Population
Studies, University of St Andrews, September 11-13.
Boyle, P.J., Feng, Z., Gayle, V., Graham, E. and Zohoor, A. (2006)
Do adults in stepfamilies
have worse health? RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London, August 30.
Boyle, P.J., Gayle, V., Graham, E. and Zohoor, A. (2006) Does stepparenting
influence mental health? Understanding Population Trends and Processes:
Inaugural Conference, University of Leeds, March 30.
