Step by Step: Stepchildren and Suppor~Obligations
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Step by Step: Stepchildren and Suppor~Obligations Caroline Sand A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master's of Education Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education Ontario hstitute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto O Copyright by Caroline Sand, 20 National Libraiy Bibliothèque nationale OfCanada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, nie Wellington Onawa ON KIA ON4 OttawaON K1AON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pennettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d' auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son pexmi ssion. autorisation. Step by Step: Strpchildren and Support Obligations Caroline Sand Master's of Education, 2000 Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education University of Toronto Abstract This thesis is an exploration of the legal relütionship between steppürents and thrir stepchildren within the context of child suppon obligations post separation and divorce. While the law has moved towards imposing a duty on stepparents to provide financidly for their stepchildren. this thesis examines the motivations of the courts in so doing. The legal and social implications of such ii duty are explored within the context of our changing trends in family sociology. specifically looking at the role of fathers. Obligating stepparents to pay child suppon acknowledges that children may have more nununng relationships with adults than sirnply the biologicd parent relationship. At the same time, the child suppon obligation may also be a way for the Canadian government to avoid its own obligations to provide for its financially dependent citizens. primarily. impoverished women and cbildren. Table of Contents Abstrac t Introduction Bac kground Legislative History Orientation in the Case Law Literature Review Researc h Met hods Case Study Discussion Problems with the Analysis of Case Law Implications Conclusion Bibliogaphy Introduction We are living in a time where the meaning of' family' is multitudinous and ever growing. This paper will look at one aspect of today's expanding notion of farnily, by exarnining the changing roles and responsibilities of stepparents. The role of stepparents has changed considerably over the last half century. In the past, a stepfather or stepmother married a widow, and became, for al1 intents and purposes, a "substitute parent." (Robinson, Smith 1993) As such, the nuclear family, cornprised of parents and children, remained more or less intact. Today, stepparents rnay in fact assume the role of 'substitute parent', but this is no longer presupposed. For many children, a stepparent represents a third or fourth parental figure. This reality is clearly one of the by-products of a society where approximately 33 per cent of mamages will end in divorce. (Beaujot; 2000) Remarriage rates are high. Approximately 64 per cent of divorced men and 52 per cent of divorced women cm be expected to remarry, with a large non-included number of unmarried cohabitation. (Beaujot; 2000) Cornmon law relationships in which children are involved follow a similar pattern. For the purposes of this paper. the word "marriage" will include both legal marriages and common law unions. Across sociological circles, there is little consensus over the definition of ' family' today. Regardless of how it is defined, one commonality fond in most definitions of family, is the idea that members of a family have mutual responsibilities and obligations. (Larson, Goltz. Hobart 1994; Robert Glossop 1994) Social and behavioral scientists generally conceptualize and definefamdv responsibility and fami[v obligations in one of two ways. (Ganong, Coleman 1999) Researchers either concentrate on individual's self-perceived responsibilities or felt obligations to specific family members, or, they focus on ' comrnonl y held or normative obligation beliefs. (~anÔn~,Coleman 1999) Felt obligations are the penonal feelings of being obligated to help other family rnembers. and have been defined as "expectations for appropriate behavior as perceived within the context of specific, personal relationships with kin across the life cycie." (Stein 1993:85) Family rnernben may hold divergent opinions about the nature of family obligations and responsibilities, and how they should be hlfilled. Normative obligation beliefs are generalized noms regarding obligations of family members to one another. (Lee, Netzer, Coward 1994) The responsibilities and obligations of stepparents to their stepchildren will be explored from both the penonal and normative perspectives. Today it is common for adults with children to expenence several intirnate relationships in their lifetimes where a partner lives together with the parent and children. Some of these relationships develop fürther, as the partner becomes a stepparent to the children of his or her partner, othen end swiftly, with relatively little melding of spouse and children. There are al1 kinds of stepparents; some take on the role of stepparent when the children are infants, and become al1 these children know of a father or rnother. Others are involved with the family for a relatively short time before the marriage or common law union breaks dom. Some stepparents assume ail the functional 'parenting' practices of a natural parent, while others remain detached fiom the children. Interestingly. the law seems to have mirrored this reality of differing levels of stepparental involvement in their steplcins' lives. by obligating only those stepparents who contributed to their stepchildren's lives to pay child support upon breakdown of the spousal relaiionship. This paper will look speci fically at stepparents who are involved with the residential parent' of children From a previous relationship. As such, this paper will be looking ovewhelmingly at stepfothers. This is because the vast majority of residential parents are mothers, with a 1996 study estirnating the number of female headed lone families at approximately 83%. (Beaujot; 2000) This highlights the underlying implications surrounding this topic, namely, the continued importance of gender and gender inequity, in issues relating to family law and sociology. The increase in poveny rates for women and children is a direct consequence of the rise of divorce rates, (Weitzman 1985; Eichler 1990- 1991) and is a subtext of the debate over stepparental responsibilities toward their stepkin Following separation. As men continue to earn significantly higher wages than women, their departwe from the family unit generally has corne to mean a lowering of the standard of living to the women and children they left behind. How to best deal with this major issue, comrnonly referred to as "the feminization of poverty," has been increasingly taken into consideration by the judiciary. In the legal arena, there has been decades-long controversy and debate over the rights and responsibilities of stepparents upon separation. This debate is generally over whether or not stepparents should be legally obligated to support their stepchildren after divorce or separation fiom the children's parent. A recent Supreme Court of Cariada decision.: may have set dom the final legal word on this issue. The Court strongly affinned the stepparent's positive duty to provide financial support to his or her stepchild after separation from the child's parent, in every case where that stepparent had 'stood in the place of a natural parent' to the child during the relationship. From a sociological perspective, this decision may have groundbreaking implications, as it accepts and encourages a broader definition of the meaning of 'farnily' in Canada today. At the same time, the decision might also represent an attempt to make the stepparent relationship something it is not. in an attempt to address the underlying social problem of the rising feminization of poverty. While hailed as a progressive decision, this judicial decision begs certain questions: Fint, is this judicially determined obligation in keeping with the general population's attitudes and normative obligation beliefs conceming the role of stepparents? In so much as the decision deals with the rights of children, and the elimination of child poverty, is this the right way of 'solving' the problem? Do stepparents really have enough resources to support children fiom fint and subsequent families? To what extent are stepparents becoming obligated to pay support because the biological father is nowhere to be found? These questions and other implications of this Supreme Court decision will be explored below . - - -- - - - 1 As part of the current reforms in family law. the tem"custody" and "access" are being replaced with the less contentious terms "residential parent" and "parenting plans." The residential parent refers