Abstract:
From an educational psychology perspective, family life – as a child’s primary educational situation – is changing drastically
as divorces increase worldwide. Various challenges to relationships accompany the restructuring of family systems after
divorce. When remarriage occurs, children’s shared membership of two family microsystems and the resultant complexity of
the mesosystem cause the reconstituted family situation to come to differ radically from that of a nuclear family. The purpose
of this article is to extend Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model in order to construct a deeper understanding of the relationship
challenges in the context of the reconstituted family, specifically noting the importance of effective parenting at mesosystemic
level. Data from two separate qualitative studies was interpreted, based on Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model, to form an
integrated understanding of the complexity and influence of the mesosystem. The findings indicate that sound proximal
interactive processes in the primary and secondary family microsystems depend on an effective mesosystem, and hence, on
at least a functionally co-operative relationship between the biological parents after a divorce. Since the biological parents
primarily control the effectiveness of the mesosystem, Bronfenbrenner’s extended bio-ecological model can be fruitfully
applied in all professions dealing with the contextual relationship challenges of reconstituted families.
