DOES STEP-PARENTING INFLUENCE MENTAL HEALTH?

Paul Boyle, Peteke Feijten, Zhiqiang Feng, Elspeth Graham,

Vernon Gayle

Stepfamilies in the UK

Growing number of stepfamilies where a lone parent forms a new marriage or partnership.

About 12% of British children will live in a stepfamily before their sixteenth birthday.

About 40% of mothers will experience being a lone parent and about 75% of lone mothers will go on to form a stepfamily.

Nearly 90% of stepfamilies involve children living with their mother and a new male partner.

Despite the rising incidence of stepfamilies researchers have been slow to acknowledge the importance of such families.

Stepfamilies and health

Numerous studies highlight the strains that every-day life in stepfamilies may entail and the effects on stepchildren’s health and well-being.

Stepchildren experience the breakdown of their parent’s relationship, may feel neglected by the biological parent, and may have to divide their time between two homes.

Various negative outcomes for stepchildren• Perform worse at school • More at risk for behavioural and developmental

problems• Higher risk of drinking alcohol, drug abuse and

problem behaviour

Considerable literature on the effects of family arrangements and marital status on adult health• Higher mortality rates among the

unmarried, those who live alone and the divorced

• More depressive symptoms are apparent among the recently separated

• Lone parents suffer higher levels of mental distress than other parents

Very few studies examine explicitly the effects of living in a stepfamily on stepparents’ and their partner’s health

Why do we expect stepparenting to affect mental health? Stepparents’ experience is potentially

stressful• Relationship with stepchildren may be

difficult – may be resistant to new additions to the family

• The relationship between the mother/father and children often deeply established

• The stepparent may feel jealous of the time their partner devotes to her/his children

• Described as ‘polite strangers’ in the lives of partner’s children

Partners of stepparents (usually women) may also find things stressful• The mother is responsible for bringing the

family together• Axis around which the family revolves –

devoted to ‘making it better for everyone’• Conflict that arises from their love for their

children and their new spouse• Some feel guilt because they are ‘betraying’

their children by remarrying• Caught between children’s need for stability

and stepparent’s needs for change• May experience problems with previous

partner

Hypotheses

1. Stepparents have worse mental health outcomes than biological parents in first families.

2. The partners of stepparents have worse mental health outcomes than biological parents in first families.

3. Those with poor mental health are more likely to end up in stepfamilies (=health selection into stepfamilies).

But:4. Selection effects do not fully explain why

stepparents have worse mental health.

Several dimensions for defining stepfamilies

Respondent is stepparent or partner of stepparent

Only one partner or both partners bring in children

Partners also have common children or not

Stepparent is male or female Stepchildren are resident or non-resident Stepchildren are young or adolescent Stepchildren are boys or girls Stepfamily is a result of divorce or

widowhood

Data

National Child Development Study (NCDS)

Birth cohort of 17,416 respondents born in a single week in 1958

Includes data on mental health, partnership histories, and other time-invariant and time-varying demographic, health and socio-economic variables

Interviewed seven times at birth and 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 41 – we focus on age 33

Sample excludes the childless and those with missing data (sample size = 6,121)

(Step)family characteristics

Distribution of family type (%)

Average no of children (resident children only)

Average no of children (incl. non-resident children)

Average age range children (resident children only)

Average age (step)parent *

First family 75.6 2.0 2.0 2.8 33.3Lone parent family 7.2 1.7 1.9 3.0 ---All stepfamilies 17.3 1.8 2.8 4.5 34.7 stepparent 6.4 1.7 2.7 4.1 37.5 partner of stepparent 8.1 1.8 2.5 4.9 32.0 both stepparents 2.8 2.3 4.2 4.6 36.1

Mental health measures

Dependent variable is mental health (Rutter’s Malaise Inventory Scale) • 24 questions designed to capture depression and

anxieties, obsessions and phobias• Score of 7 or more defined as poor mental health (12%)

Rutter’s Home Behaviour Scale measure collected in 1974 at age 16• 22 questions designed to capture externalizing

behaviour (under-controlled behaviour such as aggression or disobedience) and internalizing behaviour (over-controlled behaviour such as anxiety or depression)

• Score of 7 or more defined as behavioural problems (21%)

Variables

Age 33Mental health (dependent)Family statusSexHousehold sizeEmployment statusHighest educationSocial class

Age 16Living with natural motherFather interested in child's educationSchool abilitiesBehavioural problems

Age 7Domestic tensionSchool abilitiesFinancial hardship

Bivariate result: family type and mental health

N % N %First family 5631 90.7 575 9.3Lone parent 434 73.9 153 26.1Stepfamily 176 83.1 240 16.9Source : NCDS sweep 1991

Non-poor mental health Poor mental health

Health selection into stepfamilies?

In stepfamily 33?

Behavioural problems 16? No Yes Total

NoYes

Total

4057 (84.1)1001 (77.1)

5058

766 (15.9)297 (22.9)

1063

4823 (100)1298 (100)

6121

Pearson chi2(1) = 34.9132 P < 0.000

In stepfamily 33?

Behavioural problems 16? No Yes Total

NoYes

Total

4057 (84.1)1001 (77.1)

5058

766 (15.9)297 (22.9)

1063

4823 (100)1298 (100)

6121

Pearson chi2(1) = 34.9132 P < 0.000

Health selection into stepfamilies?

Odds of poor mental health at age 33 (1991) by family status

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

first family lone parent stepparent partner ofstepparent

both stepparent

Odds of poor mental health at age 33 (1991) by family status and behavioural problem status at age 16 (1974)

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

first family lone parent stepparent partner ofstepparent

both stepparent

HBS<7

HBS>=7

Additional outcomes

Having common children reduced rates of mental illness, but none of the differences between adults in stepfamilies with and without common children were statistically significant.

The presence of adolescent children (age 13-17) in the household was shown to increase the likelihood of poor mental health, but this was true for all family types.

Adults in stepfamilies with non-resident children were more likely to have mental health problems than their counterparts who did not have non-resident children. The effect was particularly strong among people who had behavioural problems at age 16.

Conclusion

First study to compare mental health for stepparents or partners of stepparents, compared to those in first families.

The NCDS is valuable as it includes a complex household grid and mental health variables.

Longitudinal analysis allows control for the potential confounding effect of selection (those with behavioural problems in early life are more likely to enter stepfamily relationships).

Bivariate results indicated that adults in stepfamilies (and lone parents) were indeed more likely to suffer poor mental health than those in first families.

However, those with a high HBS score at age 16 were more likely to enter a stepparent family.

For those with low HBS scores at age 16 only those in more complex dual stepparent families (and lone parents) had significantly worse health than those in first families.

For those who had high HBS scores at age 16 stepparents, all those in stepfamilies (and lone parents) had significantly worse mental health than those in first families.

Hence our results suggest that those who had behavioural problems in adolescence are much more likely to suffer poor mental health in later life, but that those who end up living in stepfamilies suffer a significantly heavier burden on their mental health.

ESRC funded UPTAP project

Ali Zohoor & Peteke Feijten

pmf1@st-andrews.ac.ukP.Boyle@st-andrews.ac.uk