Shared Children in Stepfamilies: Experiences Living in a Hybrid Family Structure

Objective To explore the lived experiences of shared children in stepfamilies (i.e., those born into a repartnered family who live with married parents and older half‐siblings). Background Shared children have been found to fare worse than other sibling groups on a variety of outcomes (e.g., educational outcomes, antisocial behavior, depressive symptoms). Little is known, however, about the lived experiences of these individuals. Method Using descriptive phenomenology, we conducted interviews with 20 shared children to answer the following research question: What is the nature of the experience of being a shared child in a stepfamily? Participants ranged in age from 19 to 30 years and lived in the same household with their half‐sibling(s) for at least some time growing up. Results Shared children's experiences were shaped by living in a hybrid “step‐nuclear” family; their upbringings were characterized by the tension of “reorganizing” as a nuclear unit but doing so within a larger stepfamily structure. The overriding phenomenon of participants' experiences was regulating family privacy boundaries—privacy rules existed surrounding sensitive information about family structure, marital histories, stepfamily dynamics, and more. In the absence of information, these children hypothesized about the topics that were not openly discussed in their families—a key part of their lived experiences. Conclusion Open communication with shared children surrounding family histories and dynamics may help reduce the ambiguity of living in a step‐nuclear family. Implications This study is an important step in understanding what about shared children's lived experiences might put them at higher risk for negative outcomes.