abstract: Blended families including half siblings (brothers/sisters who share only one biological parent, most likely a product of divorce and remarriage) are becoming increasingly prevalent in Western societies. Studies have determined the negative outcomes of sharing only one biological parent on familial relationships, but less so on how half siblings may be resilient in the wake of restructuration and cultivate positive relationships overtime and into adulthood. This study applied a systems and resilience perspective to understand how blended family structure influences this unique sibling dyad. This research includes two studies. First, seventeen older half siblings who define their current sibling relationship as positive participated in a retrospective turning points interview. The second study required sixteen additional participants to keep a two-week daily diary on their communication with immediate family members, including half siblings. These two studies combined shed light on the typical communication practices between positive half siblings, including which behaviors contribute to prosocial relational sibling maintenance. Results detailed 23 prosocial relational maintenance behaviors. The maintenance behaviors positivity, joint activities, openness, and parental intervention were most significant in contributing to a positive half sibling relationship. Three novel maintenance behaviors (parental intervention, awareness of maturity, and mentoring behavior) were also identified to contribute to existing maintenance literature. Theoretical and practical implications for scholars and practitioners alike are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2018

Blended families are an increasingly common type of family cohabitation. However, very little is known about the specifics of relationships between individual members of these families and how these relationships affect the personal well-being of the child in these families. The literature review section summarizes the findings of foreign research dealing with the specifics of relationships between individual members of blended families and how these relationships affect children's well-being in these families. The empirical part describes the research investigation and its results. The aim of the research was to find out what parenting styles are used by parents and stepparents in blended families, to compare relationships between different types of siblings and to find out how these relationships and parenting styles are related to children's well-being in these families and family belonging. Keywords Blended families, well-being, family belonging, parenting styles, siblings

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This study investigated the difference in stress levels of stress factors according to the structure or type of family. The relatedness of the ranking of stress factors within and across three family types and the relationship between level of stress and number of years in current family type were also examined. Important aspects of this study were using three family types, using families seeking counseling as the subjects, and investigating numerous stress factors across family types. These research techniques avoided the limitations of previous research which investigated only one family type, thus isolating special stress issues for a certain family type where those special issues actually might not differentiate among family types. Also, considering numerous stress factors at one time, rather than only a few factors, indicated relative levels of stress as well as absolute stresses that families are likely to experience. Targeting families who had sought counseling should give counselors a more realistic view of clients and their problems.

A la fois phénomène social et institution juridique, il n’est d’organisation familiale qui échappe à la règle de droit. La place de chacun de ses membres est fixée en fonction d’un statut identifié. De singulière, la famille peut, dans ses rapports avec l’enfant, être plurielle. L’enfant et ses familles, nucléaires et élargies, n’existe que par ses liens familiaux. Son statut hétéroclite l’amène à coexister avec le groupe familial. Les schémas d’existence et de coexistence de l’enfant, de sa naissance à son décès, ne sont pas neutres juridiquement, tant les enjeux extrapatrimoniaux que patrimoniaux sont marqués. / At the same time social phenomenon and legal institution, it is not of family organization which escapes the legal provision. The place of each one of its members is fixed according to an identified statute. Of singular, the family can, in her relationship with the plural child, being. The child and his families, nuclear and widened, exist only by his family ties. Its heteroclite statute leads it to coexist with the family group. The diagrams of existence and coexistence of the child, of his birth to its death, are not neutral legally, as well the extrapatrimonial challenges as patrimonial are marked.

La loi du 3 décembre 2001 a, incontestablement, réalisé une avancée majeure dans la protection du conjoint survivant en lui reconnaissant une vocation ab intestat en propriété et en lui permettant, le restant de sa vie, de se maintenir dans le logement conjugal. Néanmoins, cette protection se révèle insuffisante pour celui auquel la loi ferme l’option pour l’usufruit légal : le survivant laissé en la présence d’au moins un enfant issu d’une précédente union. L’introduction de cette distinction à l’article 757du Code civil ne permet pas, en effet, de garantir aux veuves et veufs, issus en particulier de familles recomposées, le maintien de leurs conditions d’existence antérieures, ce, d’autant plus que le droit viager au logement ne peut passe cumuler avec le quart légal en propriété. D’où la nécessité pour le futur défunt d’anticiper les conséquences de sa disparition. Le droit patrimonial de la famille offre, à cet égard, toute une panoplie d’instruments juridiques que le législateur du 23 juin 2006 est venu étoffer, notamment par les nouvelles libéralités-partages et les libéralités graduelles et résiduelles. Toutefois, il sera fait appel aux outils les plus classiques issus, pour les uns, du droit des régimes matrimoniaux avec les avantages matrimoniaux, pour les autres, du droit des libéralités avec l’institution contractuelle entre époux. La voie matrimoniale devant, autant que faire se peut, constituer l’essentiel de la protection du conjoint survivant. Enfin, il sera de bonne pratique de compléter ces mesures de prévoyance conjugale par le recours à l’assurance-vie et à la société civile de gestion de portefeuille de valeurs mobilières. / The law dated December 3rd, 2001 realized, undoubtedly, a major step forward in the protection of the surviving spouse since it recognizes for him a legal vocation in property and it allows himself, the rest of his life, to remain in the matrimonial home. Nevertheless, this protection turns out to be insufficient for the one to which the law closes the option for the legal usufruct : the survivor left with at least one child stemming from a previous union. The introduction of this distinction in the article757 of the civil Code does not, indeed, allow to guarantee for the widows and widowers, stemming in particular from blended families, the preservation of their previous conditions of existence, it, especially as the right life annuity in the accommodation cannot accrue with the legal quarter in property. Where from thenecessity for the future deceased to anticipate the consequences of his disappearance. The property right of the family offers, in this respect, a whole outfit of legal instruments which the legislator of June 23rd, 2006 came to enrich, in particular by new liberalities-divisions and the gradual (and residual) liberalities. However, it will be called on to the most classic stemming tools, for some, of the right of the matrimonial systems with the marital advantages, for the others, the right of the liberalities with the contractual institution between spouses. The marital way in front of, as far as possible, to constitute the main part of the protection of the survivor. Finally, it will be considered as good practice to complete these measures of conjugal foresight by the life insurance and the civil society of management of portfolio of securities.