When you're not the Brady Bunch: Identifying perceived conflicts and resolution strategies in stepfamilies

This study was a qualitative analysis of interviews from 58 members of 17 s tepfamilies regarding the sources of conflict and conflict resolution strat egies. The majority of conflicts resulted from negotiation of family bounda ries and were manifested in the following ways: (a) disagreements over reso urces; (b) loyalty conflicts: (c) individuals holding a "guard and protect" ideology; and (d) conflict with extended family members. Wide arrays of re solution strategies were used, and some, but not all; resulted in positive outcomes.