Reconstructing the stepfamily: old myths, new stories

The proliferating stepfamily has come to reflect the multiple social changes in American family life. Nevertheless, the dominance of the nuclear family culture continues to marginalize and stigmatize stepfamilies. Concepts drawn from narrative theory are used to examine how the privileged status accorded biological parentage serves to restrict society's thinking about the nature of families and parenting roles. The promotion of the nuclear family as the benchmark for family life perpetuates stepfamily invisibility and bias that permeate both stepfamily policy and practice. Illustrations from family policy and practice are offered. Social workers can help to shape more appropriate policies by fostering new family values that honor kinship ties based not only on biology, but more and more on affection and responsibility. In clinical practice social workers can assist stepfamilies in abandoning misguided attempts to reinvent themselves as nuclear families and to create their own commensurate and unique stepfamily story.