ABSTRACT
Most of the current writing on destructive family relationships focuses on factors within a traditional family unit, that is, two married adults (first marriage) with their own children. This is understandable because the traditional nuclear family is still normatively and statistically the predominant family unit within our society. With increasing rates of divorce and remarriage over the past decade, however, the “reconstituted” or stepfamily has become significantly more prevalent, so much so that it has become one of the major family types. This has led many professionals as well as stepfamily members to pose questions about the nature of stepfamily functioning.
