On Step Families

In 2005, more than 10 per cent of all families with dependent children in Great Britain were stepfamilies.
Office for National Statistics (2007) Social Trends. Palgrave Macmillan.

Children live in an increasing variety of family structures. Parents separating can create lone-parent families or by remarriage or cohabitation, where stepfamilies may be created. Following a separation, children tend to stay with their mother meaning that the majority (84 per cent) of stepfamilies in Great Britain in 2006 consisted of a stepfather and a natural mother compared with 10 per cent of families with a stepmother and a natural father (Table 2.11). The proportion of children living with their natural mother and a stepfather remained fairly stable (between 83 and 88 per cent) over the last ten years, whereas there were considerable fluctuations in the proportion of children living with their natural father and a stepmother. Between 1991/92 and 1996/97 the proportion of children staying with their natural father doubled, from 6 per cent to 12 per cent, although this proportion has since decreased. In 2006, 6 per cent of stepfamilies comprised children from both partners’ previous relationships.
Office for National Statistics, Social Trends No.38, page 22