**2. Family configurations**

This category includes issues investigated by several studies that present the new character‐ istics of family's configurations which are different from the traditional one. It refers to families with stepfather, due to divorce, adoption or remarried families. Examples of the major issues referred in this category are described below.

One study (Grzybowski & Wagner, 2010) investigated parenting practices of mothers and fathers who are divorced or separated, emphasizing that even in this situation mothers were more involved with their children than fathers, and mothers usually cohabited with children. The results reveal a traditional configuration of parental involvement after separation/divorce, meaning that the maternal involvement is greater than the paternal after the end of marriage, and that cohabitation may lead to greater direct involvement with children.

The process of adopting a child has a specific configuration within the family dynamic and organization, once men who wish to have a child see in adoption an opportunity to become fathers. Fathers interviewed referred desire to form a family composed by the couple and their children, although they also reported difficulties with the legal adoption and the threat of biological parents. Parents claim to be happy and satisfied with the adoption, and describe the role of father as good, requiring a present and accountable parent in daily activities. The articles (Andrade, Costa, & Rossetti-Ferreira, 2006; Tomé & Schermann, 2004) dealing with nonbiological parents, as in the case of adoption or stepfathers, refer to the construction of paternity in a context that aims at overcoming the lack of consanguineous ties by affective ones. In adoptive parenthood, even when inserted in the labor market, mothers are the primary caregivers, as well as those who primarily perform the home chores, while fathers assume the role of helpers and of dealing with the economic support.

Couples who get together to form a family were, for a long time, the focus of research. However, given current social and economic changes, many women begin to participate actively in the labor market, starting to head up their families, and being responsible for livelihood as well. These findings show the coexistence with traditional family arrangements of single parent homes, consisting of one parent (usually the mother), as well as divorced or remarried families, who do not require the coexistence of a parent with the child. In such cases, in most studies the father is focused as the parental figure who leaves home and starts living with another family - with biological children or not, which is reconstituted through remar‐ riage (Jablonski, 2010; Kamers, 2006; Wagner, et al., 2005). Research indicates that even in cases of non-biological children, such as adoption and the existence of stepfathers, parental involve‐ ment and participation become possible through the construction of emotional bonds that overcome the limitation of consanguinity. Even in divorced, remarried families, or with adoptive parents, mothers' role in caring for children seems to be more expressive, while fathers assume traditional roles in supporting mothers and children. Therefore, the mother appears as the primary responsible and the father as a helper in this process (Perucchi & Beirão, 2007; Wagner, et al., 2005).
