The majority of families have shifted from the original biologically bonded mother, father and child. The United States is now a nation in which the majority of families are divorced, yet most remarry or form living together relationships.
These families take a variety of forms, including divorced with children who reside with one parent and visit the other; remarried, re-coupled, living together, with his and/or her children; single mothers; re-coupled, dating and alone; divorced fathers who visit their children, and lesbian and gay couples with children from a prior relationship.
According to the US Census Bureau, 1300 new stepfamilies form every day, and over 50 percent of the families are remarried or recoupled. Fifty percent of the 60 million children under the age of 13 are currently living with one biological parent and that parent’s current partner.
Fifty percent of all women, not just mothers, are likely sometime in their life, to live in a stepfamily relationship, when we include living-together families in our definition of the stepfamily, according to research compiled by Professor of Sociology Larry L. Bumpass of the University of Wisconsin.
