What Do We Know about Stepchildren?

Abstract It is incontestable that the number of stepfamilies in Britain has increased dramatically over the last fifty years. The exact figures are surprisingly elusive, partly because until recently the census did not publish statistics either of stepfamilies by remarriage or of unmarried couples living together. But we do know that the rate of divorce is higher than in any previous period, twice as high as in any other European country, and that in 1991 alone 170,000 children under 16 experienced a parental divorce, while the rate of marriage has increased fourfold over the last twenty years. By the early 1990s one child in twelve was already living in a step family in Britain, and in the United States one in six. And the numbers were predicted to climb further.