Loyalty Bonds In The Film Daddy's Home

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There are many factors that play into adjustment after the formation of stepfamilies, but one of the most prominent is the presence of loyalty binds. Loyalty binds can affect child stress and how the child exhibits that stress. The movie Daddy’s Home has several examples of loyalty binds that lead to stress and problem behaviors within the children. A loyalty bind can happen in any relationship and it is the feeling that, “to love or even like a stepparent is a betrayal of their real mom or dad” (Wednesday, 2009). This corresponds to the research found that discusses how the stronger the loyalty to the nonresidential parent, the more stress the child has. The parents themselves can cause this stress by purposely bad mouthing one another.
In Daddy’s Home the stepfather, Brad, marries the mother, Sara, who has two biological children. The stepchildren do not accept their new stepfather. As the stepfather starts to become more integrated into the family, the biological father, Dusty, reenters the picture and there is a lot of conflict. Both fathers become very competitive for their children’s affection, but eventually they are able to agree that …show more content…

Thus, children who are close to both a stepparent and a non-resident biological parent might feel torn between these two relationships, resulting in greater stress.” (Jensen, Shafer, & Holmes, 2017) Towards the beginning of Daddy’s Home, Megan displays her drawing of the “family” which included a knife in the stepdad as well as feces on his head. This shows that she does not include the stepdad as a respected part of the family partly because she feels like she must be loyal to her biological father. The movie corresponds with the research because there is a loyalty bond situation happening and the child is outwardly expressing distress by drawing such violent

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