0 the man or woman who is married to someone's mother or father but who is not their real father or mother --
The same thing could happen to stepparents in cases where the real parents have died or neglected the child, or even badly treated it.
That relationship would be quite different if the stepparent regarded himself or herself not only as a parent but as a possible husband or wife.
More of the children adopted by parents and stepparents are the legitimate children of a former marriage.
When one in three marriages ends in divorce and stepparents multiply, these deficiencies are daunting.
At the start of the study, 79 families were intact, 45 had a single parent, 57 had a stepparent, and 23 had experienced three or more transitions.
A categorical indicator of family structure is used, distinguishing youths in intact two-natural-parent families (coded 1) from those in single-parent or stepparent families (coded 0).
Most (77.9%) of the youth lived in two-parent (biological, adopted, or stepparents) families.
Attitudes regarding obligations to assist an older parent or stepparent following later-life remarriage.
