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Twelve stepparents of adolescents were asked in a semi-structured interview to describe (a) their life before joining the family; (b) 'getting to know' the family during dating; and (c) being a part of the stepfamily. Qualitative analysis revealed four major themes: (1) Legitimate power, or questions of trust, credibility, financial responsibilities, and discipline; (2) Expectations about appropriate adolescent behavior, appropriate role models, the fight to be nurturing, and the time to become part of a family; (3)Belonging, unity, and cohesion, or feeling excluded, friction with one child, joining with spouse, forming 'united fronts,' triangulation, traditions, and communication; and (4) Stepparent roles, including ambiguity and loss of personal time. Stepparent narratives support the conclusion that an over-arching issue is that of joining. In addition to supporting prior research, the present results highlighted the common coping strategy that 'they will grow up and move out someday,' the fact that much of the friction in joining is typically with just one child, the importance of the parents forming a united front, and the importance of loss of 'personal' time for stepparents. KEYWORDS. Stepfamily, stepparents, adolescents and divorce, adolescents in stepfamilies

Twelve biological parents with one or more adolescents were interviewed about their experiences prior to and subsequent to stepfamily formation. Phases preceding stepfamily formation (divorce or death of spouse, single parenting, and dating) were found to influence the parent's subsequent experience. For example, parents reported feeling a great deal of loss and stress that was not alleviated in the new family as well as a decreased fear of being on their own should the stepfamily break up. After stepfamily formation, two global themes describe the experience of parents: (1) shock and disappointment due to deeply imbedded myths and expectations about normative families; and (2) divided loyalties. A model of stress in the stepfamily life cycle is applied to the results.

Presents a study that examined the experience of stepparents in a family. Methodology; Lack of power of stepparents in their relationships with family members; Expectations of stepparents about their role in the stepfamily.