ABSTRACT
Research into stepfamilies has rarely devoted specific attention to marriages in which there are no children. That children occupy such a central place in definitions of the step-family is closely related to the interpretation that children are important to the everyday life of the stepfamily. Descriptions of the distinctive characteristics of stepfamilies and their specific problems typically include children in a very central role. Even though children are recognized as occupying a central place in definitions of the stepfamily as well as in its everyday life, mainstream research on the stepfamily has failed to give them more than perfunctory attention. The orientation of mainstream stepfamily research to adults is grounded in the same notion that cuts across most sociological research: namely, that children are incapable of producing relevant information about their lives for research purposes. Mainstream research on the stepfamily has also been characterized by a problem-oriented perspective.
