Child Upbringing and Family Stability in Blended Households. A Case of Gihosha Commune, Bujumbura Province, Burundi
: Child-upbringing in blended households has the potential to be remarkably complicated compared to traditional families. Important factors
contributing to this complexity in blended households is the conflicting
emotions, challenges of acceptance, rejection, ambiguity of identity, and
poor parent -child relationships. Therefore, there is a need to question
whether family stability could be affected by the way children are raised in blended households. For the purpose of answering whether child-upbringing
impacts on family stability in blended households, the research was
conducted as a qualitative study. The effects of child-upbringing on family
stability were investigated by using interviews guides generated from
research questions. Structured interviews were conducted by using video
calling, audio recordings, as well as notes taking. The total sample size
comprised of 40 respondents from parents and children living in blended
households. The data was analysed using content analysis, the information
was organized into themes. The findings indicated that child upbringing in
blended households does indeed affect family stability. However, to mitigate
the negative influence of child upbringing, this study recommended that there should be policies and programs that deals with blended households issues. Additionally, all parties involved in blended households should adopt good communication skills, they should build a loving, peaceful and healthy parent –child relationships, they should love and respect each other so that they can live in harmony .Children should have a loving and a peaceful place they can call home.