Stepfamily and Residential Rootedness

Catherine Bonvalet (1) , Céline Clément (2)

1 INED - Institut national d'études démographiques
2 Cresppa-GTM - Genre, Travail, Mobilités

Housing and living arrangements have important implications for stepfamilies. The aim of this research was to rephrase questions on housing and living arrangements in terms of “life spaces”. Qualitative interviews show that stepfamilies combine social ties and space by integrating and sharing them but also sometimes by keeping them distinct and in competition with each other. In these types of families, there are spaces where parents and children gather, some locations even allowing relations with the former stepfamily to continue. Moreover, despite the separation of the parental couple, there are places where “family histories” can be constructed, such as in second homes.

Keywords: Current Partner; Consensual Union; School Holiday; Paternal Grandmother; Primary Residence

Domains: Demography; Sociology

Catherine Bonvalet, Céline Clément. Stepfamily and Residential Rootedness. Catherine Bonvalet; Eva Lelièvre. Family beyond household and kin. Life Event Histories and Entourage, a French Survey, Springer, Springer, pp.151-168, 2016, Coll. « Ined Population Studies », 978-3-319-24684-0. ⟨10.1007/978-3-319-24684-0_8⟩. ⟨hal-02460637⟩