A National Portrait of Stepfamilies in Later Life
A National Portrait of Stepfamilies in Later Life
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DOI：
10.1093/geronb/gbx150
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发表时间：
2018-09-01
影响因子：
6.2
通讯作者：
Cupka, Cassandra Jean
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lin, I-Fen;Brown, Susan L.;Cupka, Cassandra Jean
目的：学者们已经记录了在生命历程的早期，继家庭的普遍性和复杂性的增加，但没有人系统地研究过美国后半生的继家庭结构。在家庭系统方法的指导下，我们描述了晚年stepfamily.Method的患病率和组成：分析是基于6,250已婚和同居夫妇参加2012年健康和退休研究。我们确定了患病率的晚年stepfamilies，分解stepfamily结构，并比较了社会人口学特征和关系质量的夫妇在stepfamilies与已婚家庭（只有共同的孩子，没有继子女），注意已婚和同居stepfamily.Results之间的差异：大约40%的中年和老年夫妇的孩子在stepfamily. Results。在所有再婚家庭中，86%是已婚夫妇，14%是同居夫妇。同居的继家庭通常包括双方以前关系的孩子，但已婚继家庭的夫妇更经常有共同的孩子。同居的继家庭似乎在社会和经济上处于最不利的地位，其次是已婚的继家庭，最后是已婚家庭。尽管这些组成的差异，合作伙伴的关系质量在很大程度上是相似的已婚家庭，已婚stepfamilies，和同居stepfamily.Discussion：这项研究强调了高患病率和复杂性的晚年stepfamilies和前景的紧迫性，更多的研究这个话题。
Objectives: Scholars have documented increases in the prevalence and complexity of stepfamilies earlier in the life course, but no one has systematically investigated U.S. stepfamily structure in later life. Guided by a family systems approach, we described the prevalence and composition of later-life stepfamilies.Method: The analysis was based on 6,250 married and cohabiting couples participating in the 2012 Health and Retirement Study. We identified the prevalence of later-life stepfamilies, decomposed stepfamily structures, and compared the sociodemographic characteristics and relationship quality of the couples in stepfamilies with those in married families (with only joint children and no stepchildren), paying attention to differences between married and cohabiting stepfamilies.Results: Roughly 40% of middle-aged and older couples with children were in stepfamilies. Of all stepfamilies, 86% were married couples and 14% were cohabiting couples. Cohabiting stepfamilies more often included children from both partners' previous relationships, but couples in married stepfamilies more often had joint children. Cohabiting stepfamilies appeared to be the most socially and economically disadvantaged, followed by married stepfamilies, and lastly married families. Despite these compositional differences, partner relationship quality was largely similar across married families, married stepfamilies, and cohabiting stepfamilies.Discussion: This study underscores the high prevalence and complexity of later-life stepfamilies and foregrounds the urgency of additional research on this topic.