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Stepchildren Over Time Essay

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time stepparents spend with stepchildren but what quality of time they spend together (or, in what types of activities), this paper seeks to uncover more detailed evidence about the experience of stepparenting. Further, this study would look to understand how these experiences and time with stepchildren may differ across gender, and how gendered expectations of childcare time and activities may be reproduced or disrupted through stepparenting. Based on previous research on both biological parents and stepparents, the proposed research expects to find that stepfathers spend more time with stepchildren, as they are more likely to live in the same primary household as the children (with their biological mothers), but that they may spend lower …show more content…

In the face-to-face interviews, questions about stepparent well-being and feelings about time with stepchildren in particular may also be influenced by response bias, if stepparents feel they are expected to feel a certain way about family members. These questions may also not address the ways these relationships and feelings may change over the course of their relationship with their stepchildren over time. The time data collected through this study may also not be representative of a typical week for the stepparents, in terms of time and activities with stepchildren, although interview questions will attempt to help address this issue. Time spent with stepchildren and the types of activities both participate in are also likely to change throughout the year, and over time across the life course. Time diaries also cannot easily measure stepparents’ potential organizing of children’s lives, which is time not necessarily spent in the presence of stepchildren or interacting with them yet it is an investment that may be quite important to children’s success and may affect stepparent stress and time across

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