will outnumber traditional nuclear families by the year 2007. (Herbert 59) A more inclusive estimate of anyone in any kind of step relationship places the number of people who are steps at about 60% of the population (Stewart 19). In the U.S News and World Report article When Strangers Become Family, research by Dr. James Bray from a nine-year study for the National Institutes of Health cites the characteristics of successful step families and discusses the importance of daily communication between husband and wife to prevent and defuse potential problems. The other recommendation that Dr. Bray suggests is that the relationship between the new spouse and children be developed very slowly. As a part of this research, Dr. Bray also lists the following types of step families and describes the characteristics and success rates of each (Herbert 60). Neo-Traditional Step families These families can be described as the most successful families in the nine-year study.The most striking characteristic of the neo-traditional family is that they take a very realistic and flexible approach to building a family. They accept that they are not a 1950s version of a nuclear family and dont try to be. This is also the type of family that after a few years most closely resembles the traditional nuclear family because of the level of intimacy and unconditional support of one another (60). Romantic Step families These families picture themselves as the idealized version of the nuclear family and do whatever they can to fit into that mold. The results are usually negative as the main problem becomes their impatience to be seen as a traditional family so they push for things that should evolve slowly. For example, in most families, as kids become teenagers there is more time spent apart because teenagers prefer to spend time with their peers. Romantic step families, in direct contrast, spend a lot of time in forced camaraderie, and teenagers are es...
