London - A third of all couples bringing up children have a child from an earlier relationship in their family, according to a report.
The rapidly growing number of step-families means that nearly 2 million children live in a two-parent family – but with one parent who is not their own.
The army of stepchildren has appeared as their parents increasingly come to regard serial relationships, not one committed marriage, as normal behaviour.
A report said that most parents have had at least one partnership in the past that they regarded as long-term.
New details of how the shape of families has been twisted by the decline of lifelong marriage and the rise of temporary cohabitation were revealed in a study of 20 000 people carried out for an insurance company.
The findings of the Family Finances report produced for Aviva were released in advance of the latest national divorce figures, published by the Office for National Statistics today.
These are expected to show that couples who do marry rather than just live together are increasingly likely to stay together.
Sarah Poulter of Aviva said: “This research shows that there is no ‘normal’ family any more. What was seen as the traditional model is becoming more and more diverse.
“It is now quite usual for a child to have three parents, and to live in a family that includes step-parents, half-brothers and half-sisters.”
The polling found that almost half of all adults who live with a spouse or partner, or with children – 49 percent – have had at least one past relationship which they regarded as committed, either a marriage or a cohabitation.
One in six have had two past relationships they thought were permanent, and one in 20 has had three or more.
The result is that 30 percent of present two-parent families include a child from a former relationship.
The report said only one in three of these step-families gets any sort of financial help from the parent of the step-child.
A third of these gets only occasional payments – while only a quarter of parents whose children live with other families provide regular payments.
The analysis suggests a third of step-families that do get financial help actually rely on the payments to get by.
It also found that one in eight adults who have been through a separation postponed the break-up because they could not afford to find anywhere else to live. – Daily Mail