When Are Stepfamily Educational Programs Offered?

Ideally, remarried or repartnering couples would take a stepfamily education class before moving in together and creating stepfamilies, but few do (Doss et al., 2009; Ganong & Coleman, 1989; Higginbotham et al., 2009). If they do anything, they read about stepfamilies and talk to someone such as a friend, their parents, or a member of the clergy (Ganong & Coleman, 1989; Higginbotham et al., 2009). For over the past 25 years, moving in together has been the primary method of preparing!

Even as recently as a decade ago, stepfamily members who wanted to attend family life education programs or workshops would have had difficulty finding them. This is less true now. Stepfamily and remarriage education programs are offered by colleges and universities (e.g., through Cooperative Extension Services), through public and private social service agencies, and from religious organizations (e.g., churches, synagogues). Several practitioners have developed “canned” programs that can be offered by leaders with minimal training. There are online interactive educational programs as well (e.g., Gelatt, Adler-Baeder, & Seeley, 2010) . There is no shortage of educational programs.