Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2025
Publication Title
Family Transitions
Keywords
Youth development, family structure; divorce, stepfamilies, single-parents
Abstract
Critical family scholars have highlighted that structurally diverse families (e.g. stepfamilies, single-parent families) are often unfairly viewed through a deficit-comparison lens. This includes assumptions that these families are less optimal contexts for raising children than married different-sex nuclear families or hold different parenting and family values. In the present study, we sought to challenge that assumption by having parents rate the importance of developmental assets for their adolescent children and then comparing perceived importance across family structures. To do so we used data from 354 parents (24.6% single-parent families, 16.7% stepfamilies, 58.8% two-biological/adoptive parent families). We found that the overwhelming majority of parents, regardless of family structure, rated developmental assets as important or very important for their adolescent children. Further, there were no statistically significant differences in perceived importance of the developmental assets based on parents’ family structure. Based on our results, it appears that family practitioners, schools, and youth serving organizations do not need to convince single- and step-parents that promotive developmental assets are important for their children. To increase attainment of these assets, it may be more valuable to examine organizational practices to ensure that programs are accessible and welcoming to all families.
Funding Source
This work was supported by the West Virginia University. This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Taylor & Francis.
DOI
10.1080/28375300.2025.2468440
Recommended Citation
Beckmeyer, J. J., Russell, L. T., & Kline, G. C. (2025). Family Structure and Parents’ Perceptions of the Importance of Youth Developmental Assets: Challenging the Deficit Orientation of Structurally Diverse Families. Family Transitions, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/28375300.2025.2468440
Comments
First published in Family Transitions: https://doi.org/10.1080/28375300.2025.2468440
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.