Julie Gosselin

Individual and Family Factors Related to Psychosocial Adjustment in Stepmother Families With Adolescents

This article presents additional data analyses from an earlier study on risk and resilience factors linked with adjustment in stepfamilies with adolescents. The primary objective addressed how individual and family-level factors impacted adjustment in a sample composed of 3 members (biological father, stepmother, and adolescent) from a subsample of 39 stepmother families. Multiple regression results showed that each stepmother family members adjustment is affected by both shared and nonshared processes. Results also highlighted the role of triangulations and role ambiguity in the psychosocial adjustment of stepmother family members. This study was approved by the Ethics Bureau of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Université de Montréal, and was supported financially by graduate scholarships from the Fonds Québécois de Recherche sur la Société et la Culture, and the Conseil de Développement de la Recherche sur la Famille du Québec. The author wishes to thank the participants for their interest and collaboration.

Is family structure a cue for stereotyping? A systematic review of stereotypes and parenthood

Is family structure a cue for stereotyping? Past reviews on the topic of stereotypes and parenthood are divided. To update the current understanding on this important question, this systematic review summarizes and integrates the body of literature published between 2003 and 2013 on stereotypes associated with married, divorced, single, step, same-sex and adoptive parents. Seventeen articles met all of the inclusion criteria. An analysis of the final sample of studies helps main trends pertaining to these six parental types to be identified. Findings revealed that motherhood and fatherhood continue to be conceptualized differently, with stereotypes associated with different types of fathers appearing more positive than those associated with different types of mothers. Married parents also appear to remain the parental type that is the most positively stereotyped and against which other types are compared. These results are compared to past meta-analytic reviews and implications for future research are presented.

Family Transitions and Children’s Well-Being During Adolescence

This study used longitudinal prospective data from a representative Canada-wide survey to assess the impact of childhood family experience on well-being during adolescence. First, we constructed family composition profiles to capture the number and type of changes in family structure that occurred in our sample over a 12-year period. Then, we examined links between initial family status, family composition profiles, timing of parental separation, and later behavioral outcomes during adolescence. Marital status at birth, as well as 2 different family transition profiles, were linked to externalized problems during adolescence. Timing of the first family transition suppressed the effect of family transition profiles on adolescent behavioral outcomes.

Canadian Portrait of Changes in Family Structure and Preschool Children's Behavioral Outcomes.

Whereas US-based data have contributed to our understanding of family composition changes over the last decades, data on Canadian families are limited, and previous studies have stressed the need for in depth, longitudinal investigations. This article begins to fill this gap in the literature by providing a current and detailed portrait of family composition changes from 1996 to 2008 (Study 1). Additionally, we performed an analysis of the role of specific child, parent and family characteristics, in interaction with family composition and family transition, in predicting pre-school children’s behavioral outcomes (Study 2). Using nationally-representative Canadian data collected from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY), we focus our inquiry on a mean sample for 0–5-year-olds of 2,866 children at cycle 8 (2008). Results show increases in non-traditional family households over time, as well as significant relationships between child characteristics, household characteristics, and family processes in predicting three behavioral outcomes: emotional problems, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and physical aggression.

Women’s Maternal Experiences in Canadian Stepfamilies: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT This study fills an important gap in the motherhood literature by exploring the experience of maternal attachment in women mothering in stepfamilies, and how it relates to their sense of competence as a (step-)parent. Forty-three Canadian women living in stepfamilies completed a series of self-reported measures on their (step)maternal experience. Results enabled us to create a portrait of the maternal experience of women mothering in stepfamilies through measures of coparenting satisfaction, adult attachment style, sense of parenting competence, and the overall quality of the relationship with the children in their care; and to predict the quality of maternal relationship among 3 different mothering contexts (e.g., biological children born in current union, biological children born in a previous union, and stepchildren).

Gender typing in stepmothers: a phenomenological analysis

Purpose – Difficulties in defining stepfamily roles remain an important issue for its members. A potentially important factor in defining roles in the family is the identification with a particular gender type and how it relates to ones expectations about ones place in the family system. The purpose of this paper is to explore how gender typing processes inform our understanding of the stepmother role construction process, and its link with stepfamily adjustment.Design/methodology/approach – Semi‐structured interview data from six androgynous and six feminine stepmothers were selected based on gender type identification.Findings – Results from this analysis were analyzed using a phenomenological approach, and are presented with the intent to explore how gender typing processes inform our understanding of the stepmother role construction process, and its link with stepfamily adjustment.Originality/value – Gender typing has not been studied in the context of stepmother families, even though research on st...

A Literature Review of Cultural Stereotypes Associated with Motherhood and Fatherhood

Abstract In many societies, the iconic image of the family is that of a White, American middle-class, first-marriage nuclear family with two heterosexual parents and biological children. Research, however, has often neglected the complexity that exists within specific populations, particularly the impact of racial and ethnic diversity. The current review explores how motherhood and fatherhood, outside of the dominant North American cultural discourse, have been stereotyped in the research literature over the past decade. While results show few singularities in studies relating to fatherhood stereotypes, singularities in the findings associated with motherhood stereotypes are more abundant.

The Examination of Emotional Facial Expressions Within Parent–Child and Sibling Interactive Contexts: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT This work constitutes a systematic review of the empirical literature about emotional facial expressions displayed in the context of family interaction. Searches of electronic databases from January 1990 until December 2016 generated close to 4400 articles, of which only 26 met the inclusion criteria. Evidence indicate that affective expressions were mostly examined through laboratory and naturalistic observations, within a wide range of interactive contexts in which mother–child dyads significantly outnumbered father–child dyads. Moreover, dyadic partners were found to match each others’ displays and positive and neutral facial expressions proving more frequent than negative facial expressions. Finally, researchers observed some developmental and gender differences regarding the frequency, intensity, and category of emotional displays and identified certain links among facial expression behavior, family relations, personal adjustment, and peer-related social competence.

Telehealth for Patients with Chronic Pain: Exploring a Successful and an Unsuccessful Outcome

Abstract Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective for treating chronic pain, but little is known about the mechanisms that might facilitate or hinder its utility when delivered by videoconference. In a single-case experimental design, we explored the outcomes of two adults with chronic pain who were provided with videoconference-based CBT. The goal was to examine the relationship between therapeutic alliance as well as presence felt and clinical outcomes. Therapeutic alliance was high overall for both participants; however, only the successful case’s alliance ratings significantly increased over treatment. Levels of presence felt in videoconferencing were also high, but were not related to therapy outcome.

Raising Children in Heterosexual and Same-Sex Families: French-Canadian Women’s Shared Maternal Experiences

ABSTRACT In recent years, there has been growing interest in studying coparenting across family structures. However, to date little is known about how women coparent with other women in stepfamilies. To better understand the lived experience of women who coparent with other women in either heterosexual or lesbian stepfamilies, this exploratory qualitative study interviewed 15 adult women individually. The data analysis helped us identify the main trends pertaining to the manner in which participants conceptualize their maternal role and how they share and divide the maternal territory among the various women involved in parenting (step)children. Findings revealed 3 main themes: (a) the internalization of societal expectations about motherhood, (b) stepmotherhood is a coconstructed role that depends on consensus support, and (c) the role and importance of communication in dividing and sharing the maternal territory.