This is a qualitative study aiming to study stepparents’ view of the relationships within the stepfamily and their thoughts about what makes it work. It is based upon three stepmothers’ life stories focusing on their relationships with their stepchildren. The study is based on a symbolic interactionistic theory and explores the experiences and unique perceptions of these women in their life as stepparents. The main conclusions of this study are that it is important to begin your journey as a stepparent building a good relationship with the child, prior to acting as a co-parent. The stepmothers all describe different strategies to create a sense of common ground with the child. It is also important to feel support and mandate within oneself and from the family members to act as an important adult. Lack of support makes relationships within the stepfamily difficult. In the absence of clarity when it comes to being a stepparent, it seems that these stepmothers have created their own role, based on their ideas of "good parenting". Emotions play an important part when it comes to how relationships develop within the stepfamily.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-87116 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Isberg, Jakob |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för socialt arbete - Socialhögskolan |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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