Open AccessFamily rituals in postdivorce families: The role of family structure and relationship quality for parents' and stepparents' attendance at children's birthdays
Author(s) -
Christian Fang,
AnneRigt Poortman,
Tanja van der Lippe
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of family research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2699-2337
DOI - 10.20377/jfr-670
Subject(s) - stepfamily , psychology , attendance , residence , remarriage , quality (philosophy) , social psychology , miller , coparenting , developmental psychology , demography , sociology , political science , law , ecology , philosophy , epistemology , biology
Objective: To investigate if divorced parents celebrate their children's birthdays with their respective ex-partner and current partner, and whether they do so "jointly" with both.
Background: Family rituals like birthday celebrations are important and meaningful events in people's lives, but little is known about who partakes in these in contemporary postdivorce families.
Method: We assessed whether divorced parents celebrated their child's birthday together with their ex-partner (i.e., the child’s other biological parent), current partner (i.e., the child’s stepparent), and jointly with both. Dutch Data (N=2,451) was analyzed using linear probability models.
Results: Most parents celebrated the child's birthday without the ex-partner, but with the current partner. One quarter celebrated with both. The ex-partners' presence was more likely when parents' and their current partners' relationship with the ex-partner was good; and less likely when parents had repartnered and when the ex-partners had sole custody or additional biological or stepchildren. The presence of the current partner was more likely in case of coresidence with the biological parent and when the ex-partner had a new partner; and less likely when the ex-partners had sole custody and when parents’ relationship with the ex-partners was good.
Conclusion: Child-related family rituals mostly involve the "new" stepparent rather than both biological parents. The effects of relationship quality, co-residence, repartnering, and having additional biological or stepchildren highlight the importance of (step)parents' willingness to interact with each other, structural opportunities for parent-child interactions, and parents’ shifting loyalties from their ex-partner to their new family.