Social Psychology

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Browsing Social Psychology by Subject "blended family"

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    Family Formation and Functioning Experiences of Blended Family Members in Ethiopia: A Constructivist Grounded Theory (Doctoral Dissertation)
    (Addis Ababa University, 2024-06) Kumneger Fikre; Tamirie Andualem (Ass. Prof.)
    The formation of blended families is mainly preceded by divorce, widowhood or romantic breakups for adults and parental separation or loss for children. As a result, the members are likely to form the new family with unsettled negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, and hopelessness. This, in turn, may affect the family’s normal functioning. This study explored the family formation processes and the family functioning experiences of blended families in Ethiopia. It employed qualitative research with constructivist grounded theory design to develop models that describe and explain the phenomenon. The study employed purposive and theoretical sampling technique and interviewed twenty-five participants drawn from eight diverse blended families. Accordingly, blended families with different family structure, socio economic, religious and educational background participated in the study. The study employed constant comparative analysis method which helped it to have meaningful interplays between data collection and analysis phases. Finally, the study constructed three different models; blended family formation model, blended family functioning model and a model that depicts the link between blended family formation and blended family functioning. The first identified the state partners were in namely problem state and aspiration state as one of the major factor that informed partners decision to blend. The second depicted three major categories of blended families (functional blended families, deteriorating blended families and dysfunctional blended families) based on their reported family functioning experiences and the third model described the link between the former two models. The study has practical implications and contributions to the design and development of evidence based blended family interventions. Keywords: blended family, blended family formation, blended family functioning, blended family model, constructivist grounded theory, Ethiopia