| The purpose of this research study was to explore the relationship between the method of money handling, money goals, and bill paying and the length of remarriage, amount of income, number of children, child support received and paid, and method of money handling in stepfamilies. The "Money Issues in Stepfamilies" questionnaire was developed by the researcher for this purpose. The sample consisted of 93 respondents from stepfamilies in the North Texas area.;Six hypotheses were tested by items on the questionnaire, and were related to the assumption that a relationship exists between specific money issues and certain characteristics of stepfamilies. The first three hypotheses related the independent variables of length of remarriage, amount of income, and number of children in the stepfamily, with the dependent variables of method of money handing, money goals, and bill paying. A Spearman rank order correlation was used to test each of these three hypotheses; no significant correlations were found for the dependent variable of money handling. Statistical significance was established for length of remarriage and bill paying, amount of income and money goals and bill paying, and number of children and money goals. The last three hypotheses related the independent variables of child support received and paid, and method of money handling, with the dependent variables of money handling, money goals, and bill paying. A Pearson chi-square analysis was used to test each of these three hypotheses; no significant correlations were found for the dependent variables of money goals or money handling, nor for the independent variables of child support received or method of money handling. Statistical significance was established for child support paid and bill paying.;The conclusions of this research were that the majority of these stepfamilies did not disagree about money issues or their method of money handling. Implications for further research would be to compare husbands' and wives' responses and to examine the issue of gender differences. |
