Blended: A Memoir is the author's recollection of her endeavors to overcome the difficulties that often accompany becoming a stepmother and build a "seamless" family. / by Abbe Greenberg. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Stepfamilies are the fastest growing family type in America. Unfortunately, our society holds unwarranted negative attitudes about and negative stereotypes of stepfamilies and stepfamily members. Research indicates that stepfamilies are not an inherently dysfunctional or deficient type of family. On the contrary, stepfamilies can be as healthy as nuclear families, and they can produce emotionally healthy individuals. Healthy stepfamilies, however, are often different in the roles of family members and the quality of interactions between members. It is this difference between stepfamily functioning and the normative nuclear family expectations of society that appears to perpetuate negative stereotypes of stepfamilies.Some evidence suggests that counselors hold negative stereotypes of stepfamilies. As s-:ich it is likely that they will diagnose and treat stepfamilies from an inappropriate nuclear family model, perceiving stepfamilies to be more pathological than they are and, in treatment, attempting to fit stepfamilies into roles and relationships inappropriate for healthy stepfamily functioning. No research to date, however, has examined whether counselors' attitudes about stepfamilies affect diagnostic and treatment decisions.This dissertation conducted a national survey of counselor attitudes about stepfamilies. It examined three areas where counselor bias may affect service delivery: judgments regarding stepfamily health, diagnostic decisions, and treatment decisions. It found that counselors appear to generate differential ratings of family health and differential diagnostic impressions on the basis of family interaction style (healthy nuclear family versus healthy stepfamily) and on the basis of family label (nuclear family versus stepfamily). These differential ratings and impressions favor a nuclear family style combined with a nuclear family label in comparison to other family style and label combinations. Additionally, the Parent-Child relationships in a nuclear family that acts like a healthy stepfamily were rated to be more in need of treatment and more important to treatment than in other family styles.The results of this study suggest that experienced counseling psychologists may express bias against stepfamilies and against nuclear families that function outside a traditional nuclear model. They appear to use the traditional nuclear family as a standard against which other family interaction styles and types are found lacking. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services