Contemporary American stepparenthood: Integrating cohabiting and nonresident stepparents

Our understanding of contemporary stepfamily life requires incorporating em erging trends in cohabitation and nonresident stepparenting into our 'tradi tional' definition of a stepparent (married adult with resident stepchildre n). Using the National Survey of Families and Households, I provide a demog raphic profile of stepparents that includes cohabiting and nonresident step parents. Adopting this revised view of stepparenthood alters our knowledge of both the prevalence and composition of stepparent families. The 'traditi onal' definition of a stepparent is shown to describe less than half of all stepparents today. Results also highlight diversity in stepparents' parent ing obligations and sociodemographic characteristics. This revised view of stepparenthood has implications for future research on and policy targeted at stepfamilies.