Replacement strategies in the construction of fatherhood and motherhood within reconstituted families

Abstract

It is remarkable that authors dealing with reconstituted families haven’t drawn all the potential consequences from the notion of family constellation, especially from the suggestion that the concept of family should be extended beyond the limits of common residence. This suggestion hasn’t been applied to the analysis of motherhood and fatherhood in this kind of families. In the research project whose outcomes are presented here this idea has proven fruitful in the consideration of the ways in which the role and the parental position of mothers and fathers and stepmother and stepfathers are constructed in reconstituted families. By way of example, the role and the position of the biological, non-custodial father is not independent form those constructed (or in process of construction) in the case of the stepfather. Equally, the practices of other members of the familial constellation, as fathers or brothers of the different spouses or couples part of it, may have a fundamental influence in the multiple processes of construction of motherhood o fatherhood evolving simultaneously.