Step-Parenting Affects on Depression in Adolescents

In modern society today, divorce rates have risen dramatically within the past decade. Due do this increase, there has also been a rise in the profusion of step families. The norm of families today often consist of step parents and step siblings which can become a difficult transition during adolescence. Adolescence is a time of confusion in independence, identity, and autonomy. The addition of step parents and step family living can heighten the emotional and stressful times during adolescents. Adjustment to the introduction of step parenting includes difficulties of loyalty, discipline, and defining roles.

It is reported that every one out of six children in the United States today is a step child (Hanson). This number has been rising by 50% for the past decade and is expected to keep rising with future generations. The nuclear family is becoming the minority of western population giving rise to step families, non married families, and single family homes. The adjustment to changes in family structure are extremely difficult to adolescents. Research has found that the older the child when step parent are introduced, the more difficult child rearing can be. Parents often underestimate the emotional affect remarriage harbors on their children, especially if they are older. This leads to negative affects for both parent and teens.

Adolescence is a difficult stage in life which is often stressful and confusing. Many pressures from parents, peers, and even oneself are conflicting daily. Adding to the demands of teen life, the introduction of a stepparent can lead to mental and emotional effects. In a study done by Judy Dunn at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, it was found that adolescents in stepfamily homes are at higher risk for health problems, lower educational achievement, and emotional adjustment problems as well. Children, ages 8-11, do not usually exhibit such emotional difficulties influenced by the introduction of a step parent. However, adolescents ages 13-18 are more affected by divorce, remarriage, or step family introduction. This may be due to the abstract thinking adolescents are capable of which their younger peers have yet to develop. Adolescents can process and understand the situation their parents are facing. Consequently, it is common for adolescents to internalize parental conflict ultimately resulting in emotional distress.

Studies have found the cause of the emotional stress to be largely linked to dived loyalty and discipline problems. Divided loyalty is a major conflict adolescence may face when a stepparent is brought into the family. When biological parents talk less of their partner in front of adolescents, this causes confusion. Adolescents experience conflict of choosing one loved parent over the other. This is a great stressor for teens in stepparent families. Females show higher levels of depression in step parent situations due to divided loyalty. Often, a step mother may become more of a companion to girls than their biological mother. Therefore, bonds are formed at a comfortable level not experienced by biological mothers and daughters. Female stepchildren often are more stressed by which parent to choose since each relationship is structurally unlike. This uncertainty may be the cause of heightened anxiety, stress, and depression in females. In both males and females however, if an adolescent feels love for a stepparent, they often feel they are betraying biological parents. Teens become confused on who to love, trust, and look up to in this complicated family structure.

The aspect of discipline in adolescence in greatly affected by step parent introduction as well. Adolescence is a time of rebelling and finding oneself in a world of norms and high expectations. The introduction of a step parent may lead to increased objection to rules. Step parents may have different rules and obligations for the step child than was previously enforced. Adolescents often feel ignorance and disrespect for the intruding step parent. Adolescence is a time of adjustment to new ways of life and different ways of thinking. It is only reasonable to determine the inclusion of an outsider trying to enforce rules is going to be problematic. A way to reduce this is to agree on rules involving both adolescent and step parent before conflict occurs.

Parental conflict is one of the main stressor for most adolescents. Research has shown the various negative effects of parental arguments. Adolescents who witness this type of conflict are more likely to exhibit the same conflict in other social relationships. Males are affected greater by the trauma of divorce than their female counterparts. However, males have an easier adjustment towards remarriage than females do. It is suggested that males from divorced families lose social trust with friends,