If present trends in divorce and remarriage continue, before the end of the century the stepfamily will outnumber all other types of family in the United States. In 1980 one out of five children under the age of eight were living in stepfamilies, and there were at least two million households in which the children were relation only by marriage (stepsiblings) or who shared only one parent in common (half-siblings). How are these new kinds of family relationships working out? In particular, how are children faring in these kinds of families?

There are a number of books on the...