Steps-4-Steps™

What Does Success Look Like?

The Steps-4-Steps™ Approach Builds Safety and Wellbeing

Stepfamilies can become safe, stable, and caring environments where children and adults flourish. Stepfamily Services helps stepfamily members build their own resilience so that they can enjoy such experiences as:

Feeling supported by friends, family, and/or others
Kindness in the stepfamily
Friendliness between stepchildren and stepparents
Couple time is positive, reliable, and frequent
A sense of teamwork for the couple
A working relationship with non-resident parents
The ability to make difficult choices with self-compassion
Positive work performance
Positive school performance
Responds to stress in ways that strengthen the stepfamily.

Stepfamily members can also experience:

A sense of belonging to the stepfamily
Feeling respected by stepchildren, stepparents or others in the stepfamily
Personal growth that makes life more meaningful
A sense of purpose in the larger world with the stepfamily as a support

Outcomes of the Steps-4-Steps™ Approach

Our Steps-4-Steps strategy is based on what formal studies* show makes the most difference for stepfamilies. The main objective is to build resilience which strengthens self-care, partnership quality, couple stability and child well-being. We address thinking, emotions, and actions that impact stepfamily life. Many of the following outcomes are helpful for other types of relationships as well.

1. Getting Real

Realistic expectations that guide appropriate preparation and responses.

Understand stepfamily dynamics
Understand how these dynamics are playing out in your stepfamily
Enough acceptance of stepfamily dynamics to respond in healthy ways
Goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound
Know strategies that help stepfamilies best adjust
Handle dynamics with ex-spouses/partners in constructive ways

2. Getting Help

Connected to appropriate sources of help.

Understand the types of help
Able to locate and use appropriate help
Referred by StepFamily Services to appropriate help

3. Getting a Life

Healthy care of self.

Understand the risks of stress
Able to identify symptoms of stress
Able to calm down, reassure self, and recover from stress
Have a plan for supporting health and wellbeing during and apart from stepfamily situations

4. Getting Together

Healthy relationship between the stepcouple in the stepfamily.

Commitment to one another
Lack of domestic violence
Fidelity
Quality time together
Intimacy
Social support

Healthy relationships between the stepsiblings, and all children and step-parents and parents.

Health
Safety
Positive socioemotional functioning
Age-appropriate cognitive functioning
Age-appropriate academic functioning

Conditions that Impact Stepfamily Interventions

Conditions other than stepfamily dynamics and intervention also affect stepfamily adjustment. These conditions may also influence a first family. For example, consider the strengths and vulnerabilities each partner brings to the relationship and the social and economic contexts surrounding families. StepFamily Services provides referrals to appropriate services as needed and we help couples to better understand and manage the effects of these factors on relationships within the stepfamily.

Income

Because of their financial circumstances, low-income couples typically experience more difficulties and stresses that can challenge the maintenance of healthy relationships and marriages.

Other Conditions

Negative conditions affecting some stepfamily couples, such as substance abuse, mental illness, and low literacy skills, can be addressed, whereas other conditions (e.g., ages of children, stepfamily complexity) are either unchangeable or beyond the scope of a stepfamily program.

* The Steps-4-Steps™ design draws from effectiveness studies published by leading clinician/researchers in the field, such as Dr. Patricia Papernow; Elizabeth Einstein, MA, MFT; Ron Deal, Francesca Adler-Baeder, PhD, CFLE; Jeannette Lofas, PhD, LCSW; and the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. An excellent summary of the current literature and recommendations for stepfamily couples education can be downloaded here.

StepFamilyServices.org L3C

Steps-4-Steps™