Dysfunctional Milestone

There are many definitions and opinions on what a family is. Should a stepfamily no longer count as a “legitimate family” since a member does not derive from the same blood? A stepfamily is a family that is created after a remarriage from a divorce or widowed event, which includes one or more children. Once it is created a barbarous cycle is created, which brings an immeasurable amount of stress and agony. However, if the system is given time it adapts and changes into a fully functioning entity. This process takes many years to adjust to and there is a constant battle along the way. By looking at the progression of the stepfamily, one can see how a dysfunctional stepfamily can cause great harm amongst all parties which is important because
With every factor that keeps a stepfamily distant, what causes the closure and allows acceptance for a new individual. There are “seven stages of stepparent development: (1) fantasy; (2) assimilation; (3) awareness; (4) mobilization; (5) action; (6) contact; cand, (7) resolution” (Patricia 357). As stepfamily goes through these seven stages, they grow closer and start acting like a legitimate family and every family goes through this cycle, the only difference is how fast they are able to complete all seven stages. “In the initial interview study, the two ‘fast’ families completed the entire stepfamily cycle in about four years, four ‘average families’ took about seven years. Three ‘slower’ families remained stuck in the early stages after 5, 8, and 12 years” (Patricia 357). These steps, take a while to take place and it isn’t a solution that happens overnight. The process to becoming a fully functioning family takes years to develop and an abundance of patience. In Who Narrows the Step Gap?, the authors took a series of samples and tests. They found in model 5 “that strength of filial obligations tended to narrow the step gap, thereby pointing to the importance of family related attitudes and values, although the causal direction of this effect is not entirely clear” (Becker, Salzburger, Lous, & Nauck 1143). Filial obligations, or acting as a family, amongst the step child and parent closed the gap. The gap is closed once the acceptance for the new member begins and he or or she is seen as family rather than a stranger. However “stepparents may have to negotiate their position within the family unit without the help of well-established cultural scripts” (Shapiro 98). In the beginning to adjust to this new relationship, the stepparent may have to ask what the boundaries are and what they are supposed to do and until those boundaries are uplifted no