The determinants of adolescents' willingness to accept a stepfather's authority

Abstract

It is hypothesized that an adolescent's willingness to accept a stepfather's authority is related to factors such as the level of the stepfather's acknowledgement/rejection of difference between the stepfather role and the conventional role of biological father, the degree of clarity of the stepfather's role in the stepfamily, the stepfather and the biological mother's parenting styles, and challenges to the parental role of the stepfather. Family triads, consisting of a biological mother, stepfather, and a child aged 12 through 18 were selected from two populations: those stepfamilies whose adolescent is willing to accept his/her stepfather's authority (group A) as determined by the Stepparent Authority Acceptance Scale, and those stepfamilies whose adolescent is less than willing to accept his/her stepfather's authority (group NA). There were 10 cases in each group. Methods used included questionnaires and personal interviews. Findings revealed that the adolescent's willingness to accept the stepfather's authority increases with higher stepfather role clarity, the biological mother's use of an authoritative parenting style, and, lower levels of stepfather role challenges. The level of the stepfather's acknowledgement/rejection of difference between the stepfather role and the conventional role of biological father was not related to the adolescent's acceptance of the stepfat er's authority. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, the stepfather's use of an adjunctive parenting style was not found to be related to the adolescent's acceptance of the stepfather's authority.