Abstract
Whatever else they may be, stepfamilies are a cultural problem. They are a cultural problem because many of the difficulties entailed in stepfamily formation and functioning derive not from the attributes of the persons involved but rather from socially defined beliefs, values, and norms about marriage and divorce, about families and households, and about relationships within and between households. Although diversity characterizes marital and domestic arrangements in the United States, family researchers suggest that middle-class Americans subscribe to a set of beliefs that constitute what may be called the 'standard model' of families and households. In this model, it is expected that marriage will be monogamous, that the family will be nuclear, neolocal, and co-residential, and that the members of the family household are entitled to one another's attention and affection. The effort to create viable stepfamilies is constrained by these ideas and ideals.