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First, here's a definition. Reconstituted families consist of married or co-habiting ('living together') couples who, between them, have at least one child from a previous relationship who either visits or lives with them.

Stepfamilies have been saddled with a less than nice image. In classic fairy tales such as 'Cinderella' and 'Snow White', we have been showed with wicked stepmothers and unpleasant stepsisters. The stepfamilies that feature now in television soap operas are usually characterised by arguments, fist fights and family breakdown. That’s why in North America, the term 'blended family' instead of 'stepfamily' is becoming more popular.
Did you know …?
• 41% of all marriages are remarriages for one or both partners.
• Remarriage rates are twice as high for men as for women.
• Each year, 11% of lone parents marry or start a co-habiting relationship.
• 30% of women born after 1946 will spend some part of their adult lives living in a stepfamily.
• At last count, there are about 26 versions of 'step' relationships, involving different combinations of single, divorced and widowed people.
• 10% of children live with one birth parent and one step-parent.

Transformed families
Over the past 30 years, major transformations have taken place in family life. Traditional nuclear families – mother, father and 2.4 children – are no longer the reality. About 40% of marriages now end in divorce, and remarriages for one or both partners have doubled since the 1970s. The charity Parentline Plus says, over 2.5 million children live in stepfamilies, or, to put it another way, stepfamilies represent 6-8% of all families with children. And around 85% of stepfamilies are formed after a relationship breakdown.

Birth parents must never imagine that their children remain unaffected by what is going on around them, say the experts. It is important for the parents to take the time...