pecially quick to detect this falseness. These families also break up at much higher rate than other step families (62). Matriarchal Step familiesAs the name suggests, in this type of step family the mother plays the dominant role. These families often occur when a single mom finally remarries. Since she is used to carrying the full parenting load, she will continue to do so. These families are more successful when the new stepfather takes a less involved role, especially if the children are teenagers who are just beginning the process of distancing themselves from parental authority. Problems occur when the new father finds himself into a disciplinary role with which he is unfamiliar (66). A variety of studies have shown that there are a sizable number of step families that are not doing well at all. These studies demonstrate that step kids do more poorly on a variety of measures than do kids that live in a traditional, two-parent home, even with adjustments for income level. They are more apt to repeat a grade in school, have disciplinary problems, and drop out of school altogether (Stewart 7). Studies collectively indicate that stepchildren do about as well as kids who live with a single parent, which remains much worse than kids in traditional nuclear families (Mahony 40). According to extensive research by Martin Daly and Margo Wilson of McMaster University in Ontario, stepchildren are more likely to be abused, both physically and sexually, and even more likely to be killed by a parent-one hundred times as likely-compared with kids being raised by two biological parents (Boyd and Norris). Another study confirms that stepchildren are less likely to go to college and to receive family financial support if they do (Herbert 62). The real reason that these families fare so poorly as a group is a matter of dispute. Its widely accepted that kids from single-parent families have troubles usually because the parent, often the mo...
