Opportunities and Threats in the Parenting Process in a Patchwork Family: Study of a Reconstructed Family

Abstract

Both in Poland and in the world, a common phenomenon is the growing percentage of step families, in the literature on this subject also called blended families. Such a family model consists of a couple of adults bringing up children of a partner from a previous relationship, a common child as well as a biological parent who functions outside the basic family system on a daily basis. In the process of creating a blended family there is not only the merging of different people, but also their beliefs, habits and experiences that they bring into this new relationship. Building a cohesive blended family is a long and demanding process. Besides analysing many risks and difficulties, it is undoubtedly necessary to look at how such a family arrangement teaches tolerance and responsibility. This article will present the results of a part of research whose main aim was to get to know family relations and educational interactions in the examined banded families from the point of view of individual members of these complex systems. The research was conducted in the strategy of qualitative research in the interpretative paradigm, using the method of individual cases. On the example of the family of Mr. and Mrs. M., the strengths and weaknesses of upbringing interactions in a blended family were discussed.