PERCEIVED ADJUSTMENT OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN - VARIATIONS BY FAMILY-STRUCTURE, RACE, AND GENDER

This study examined family structure, race, and gender differences in parent and child adjustment to address the absence of empirical information about the experiences of African-American step-family members. Subjects were 497 primary respondents (82 African-American, 415 white) living in stepfather families and 2,706 (394 African-American, 2,312 white) respondents living in intact families who participated in the National Survey of Families and Households. Results indicated that African-American stepfather families were generally similar in parent and child adjustment to relevant comparison groups-white stepfather families and African-American intact families. As a result, the empirical literature that has examined adjustment in these comparison groups may be generalizable to African-American stepfather families.