Het thuisgevoel van jongeren in een stiefgezin

Abstract

Background: Each year nearly 70.000 children in the Netherlands are faced with a divorce or separation of their parents. As a result many children will become part of a stepfamily. The sense of belonging in a stepfamily has proven to be a protective factor for various problems associated with a divorce or separation. Aim: This study explores whether there is a connection between the sense of belonging of young people after a divorce and the presence of new stepfamily members in different types of family structures. Method: For this study, data was used from the cross-sequential study “Scholieren en Gezinnen, wave 2018”. Participants were youngsters aged 10 to 19 years old from separated and divorced families. The sense of belonging was taken as dependent variable for both father and mother and family structure was taken as independent variable. Three family groups were distinguished: youngsters of which one of the parents (1) does not have a new resident partner, (2) has a new resident partner and (3) has a new resident partner with children. Additionally two extra groups of family structure were compared: youngsters of which one of the parents (1) has a new resident partner with children and half siblings and (2) has a new resident partner with half siblings. A one-way ANOVA was used to compare the different groups of family structures. Results: Analysis showed that youngsters whose father has a new resident partner with children scored significantly lower on sense of belonging than youngsters whose father does not have a new resident partner. No other significant results were found. Additional analysis showed that youngsters whose father has a new partner with children and half siblings scores significantly lower on sense of belonging than youngsters whose father does not have a resident partner. Conclusion: Young people’s sense of belonging is lower for youngsters of which the father has a new resident partner with children and for youngsters of which the father has a new resident partner with children and half siblings. This might be related to the complexity of blended families. Despite the divorce or separation and the presence of new stepfamily members, youngsters in all family groups experience a reasonable to high sense of belonging. Building knowledge on the specific problems of various family groups is required to improve expertise for better information and support for blended families.