Margaret Crosbie-Burnett

A Descriptive Empirical Study of Gay Male Stepfamilies.

This descriptive study identified family dynamics associated with measures of family happiness for biological fathers, stepfathers, and adolescents in 48 European-American gay stepfamilies. The Stepfamily Adjustment Scale was modified for use with this population. For all three family members, family happiness was more highly related to stepfather inclusion in the family and to a positive steprelationship than it was to the couples relationship, family cohesion, relationship with the ex-wife, money issues, or adolescent family-related self-efficacy. Adolescents were the most closeted and biological fathers were the least closeted.

Application of Family Stress Theory to Remarriage: A Model for Assessing and Helping Stepfamilies.

Remarriage and adjustment to stepfamily living are conceptualized as a life transition in the framework of family stress theory. The Double ABCX model serves as the basis for delineating the hardships that can be associated with remarriage, potential resources available to the stepfamily, meanings of the remarriage, and possibilities of adaptation that are unique to the remarried family. The application of the model is designed to provide a format for assessment of stepfamilies, a guide for interventions, and a basis for policy supporting stepfamilies.

Use of African-American Family Structures and Functioning to Address the Challenges of European-American Postdivorce Families.

The experience of African-American families is used to inform European-American postdivorce families, including stepfamilies. Strategies and coping mechanisms that stem from a pedi-focal definition offamily and are used in African-American families are suggested for postdivorce families to aid in their struggles with: welfare of dependent children, confusion about family roles and household boundaries, and the very definition offamily. Implications for theory development, research, policy, and practice are included.

Legal and psychological perspectives on same-sex domestic violence: A multisystemic approach

This article presents the legal and psychological aspects of same-sex domestic violence (SSDV) in a multisystemic model that encompasses family systems, friends and the gay-lesbian-bisexual communities, legal systems, and mental and physical health systems, encouraging family psychologists to be the leaders of reform. The current status of relevant laws is integrated into the literature on SSDV, which includes prevalence, myths regarding SSDV, help-seeking behavior of victims, and similarities and differences between SSDV and opposite-sex domestic violence. Recommendations for change in all of the overlapping systems and in the public policies of the larger society are included.

Experiences Regarding Coming Out to Parents Among African American, Hispanic, and White Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Adolescents

This qualitative study, based on data collected from focus groups of ethnically and racially diverse gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning adolescents (53% Hispanic/Latino/Latina, 35% Black/African American, 11% Caucasian/White, and 1% South Asian-Indian), serves to expand knowledge about experiences of diverse adolescents when coming out to their parents. Varying aspects of such reactions, particularly among Hispanic/Latino/Latina and African American participants, are a valuable outcome of the current study. As such, this study contributes lesser known aspects of the coming out experience to the social services literature. Recommendations for mental health practitioners and social service workers are provided.

Adolescent Adjustment and Stepparenting Styles

The discovery that adolescents in stepfamilies experience higher rates of negative outcomes than adolescents in nuclear families has generated interest in how the stepparenting process may affect adolescent development. Research comparing adjustment problems in adolescents from nuclear families versus stepfamilies has found less complete socialization and lower educational expectations and attainments in adolescents in stepfamilies (Astone & McLanahan, 1991; Dornbusch et al., 1985; Furstenberg, 1987; Hetherington, 1993; Hetherington & Clingempeel, 1992; Thomson, McLanahan & Curtin, 1992). The combination of normal adolescent developmental tasks and the complexities of stepfamily life may put these adolescents at particular risk. However, many adolescents are well adjusted and develop normally in stepfamilies. How might this variability in adolescent outcomes be related to stepparenting? Historically, research on stepparenting has focused on the ambiguity of role definitions for stepparents (Cherlin, 1978; Fine, Kurdek, & Hennigen, 1991; Giles-Sims, 1984). More recently, interest in specific parental behaviors in stepfamilies has come to the fore (Fine, Voydanoff, & Donnelly, 1993), but the best role definition for stepparents, particularly for stepparents of adolescents, is still in question. In the present research, we adapted a theoretical model of parenting styles for use with stepparents and then tested the relationships between stepparenting styles and adolescent adjustment. Based on the results, recommendations for family life educators, family therapists, and stepfamily members are made. THEORETICAL MODELS OF PARENTING STYLES Since the seminal work of Sears, Maccoby, and Levin (1957), most theories of parenting, including Baumrind (1971), have focused on the additive effects of dimensions of parental behavior (Kurdek & Fine, 1994). The two major dimensions are support (including warmth, acceptance, and nurturance) and control (including supervision and discipline) (Barber Rollins, 1990; Peterson & Rollins, 1987). Combining high versus low levels of these two dimensions distinguishes four parenting styles: Authoritarian-autocratic, Authoritative-reciprocal, Permissive-indulgent, and Indifferent-uninvolved (Macoby & Manin, 1983). Baumrinds (1971) original model had not differentiated between these last two styles, but in later work these styles were differentiated. Surprisingly, most studies of parenting styles and adolescent outcomes have focused on single dimensions of parenting, despite the acceptance of additive models. Recently, Baumrind (1991) and Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, and Dornbusch (1991) did use the four styles, additive model to study adolescents and their parents. Both studies identified the Authoritative parenting style as the most conducive and the Indifferent style as the least conducive for adolescent well-being. This model needs to be adapted to apply to stepparents. Baumrind (1971) and others, reviewed in Maccoby and Martin (1983) and Peterson and Rollins (1987), created their models for biological parents; assumptions about the legal and moral responsibilities of biological parents underlie the labels given to the four styles, specifically that parents are supposed to be actively involved in both the support and control dimensions of parenting. The same assumptions cannot be made about stepparents. The law does not hold stepparents responsible for either dimension of parenting, or for the behavior of their stepchildren. Also, there is wide variation between and within families in beliefs about the moral and behavioral responsibilities of being a stepparent; these range from believing that stepparents have no obligation to parent to believing that they are morally responsible to help rear their stepchildren. Therefore, the less active parenting styles (i.e., Permissive-indulgent and Indifferent-uninvolved) may be not only more common and more appropriate, but these more laissez-faire types of parenting behaviors should have a less negative label when applied to step parents. …

Theoretical Contributions from Social and Cognitive-Behavioral Psychology

Psychology is the science of the psyche or mind (Hebb, 1974). By definition, psychology has been the study of individuals, particularly the mental processes and behavior of individuals or, in the case of social psychology, nonfamilial groups of individuals. Therefore, psychology has had no explicit theory about family structure or functioning. Aspects of theories in psychology that do address the family have been extensions of theories about the individual; that is, family variables, especially parent-child relationships, have been used to predict outcomes in the individual’s development, personality, or behavior pattern. Of course, the way these family variables were conceptualized and measured reveals implicit theories about coupling and families within the various subdisciplines of psychology.

Explaining Couple Cohesion in Different Types of Gay Families

This Internet-based study used data from a convenience sample of 176 gay men in current partnerships to examine differences in outness, cohesion, and relationship quality between three types of gay male couples: first cohabiting partnerships, repartnerships, and gay stepfamilies. Also, we tested whether relationship quality mediated the link between outness and cohesion and the moderating role of type of relationship. Results showed that those in first cohabiting partnerships had the lowest levels of relationship quality and cohesion, whereas those in gay stepfamilies reported having the highest levels of relationship quality and those in repartnerships reported the highest levels of cohesion. For all couples, the link between outness and cohesion was partially mediated by relationship quality, and this was moderated for those in repartnerships.

Simulated Divorced and Remarried Families: An Experiential Teaching Technique.

Helping professionals and educators need to understand the emotional and psychosocial impact of divorce and remarriage on the populations they serve. This article describes and reports the evaluation of an innovative teaching technique designed as a semester-long exercise in which simulated families e)f)erience divorce and remarriage. Participants were 23 masters students. Results from quantitative and qualitative data suggest that the technique was successful in sensitizing students to the experiences of post-divorce families.

Moral Dilemmas of Early Adolescents of Divorced and Intact Families A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis

In this exploratory study, differences in the content of moral dilemmas reported by early adolescents of divorcedversus intact families were investigated. Based on developmental theory and prior clinical observations, it was hypothesized that early adolescents from divorced families would report more family-related moral dilemmas. Nearly the entire population (n = 98) of fifth graders from a rural midwestern town were asked to describe a moral dilemma they were experiencing. Early adolescents of divorce reported more family-related moral dilemmas than did early adolescents of intact families. There were no differences by gender or educational level of parents. The results tentatively support the clinical observations of Wallerstein that children and adolescents of divorce face additional psychological tasks in development. The results appear to support the Kegan theory of development, which postulates that early adolescents of divorce may not advance as soon as other early adolescents from embeddedness in the family to embeddedness in the peer culture.