ABSTRACT
Although stepfamilies have existed for centuries in the Western world, prior to the 1970s stepfamilies were a virtually unstudied phenomenon. In Canada, as elsewhere, changes in divorce legislation that facilitated obtaining a divorce in the latter half of the twentieth century had the side effect of an increase in the number of stepfamilies. This dramatic rise in the number of stepfamilies led some commentators to refer to them as “the future traditional American family” (Berger, 1995). In Canada, while 10% of all couples with children were stepfamilies in 1995, by 2001 this figure had increased to 12% (Statistics Canada, 2002e). However, it appears that the trend towards more stepfamilies in Canada may have levelled off. Extrapolating from the most recent available data, the 2006 GSS, the proportion of families in Canada that were stepfamilies in 2006 remained at 12% (Bechard, 2007). It appears that, for the moment, the “traditional family” in Canada may have a reprieve from the trend towards losing its majority position, at least with respect to the proportion of stepfamilies.
