The child-stepparent relationship: its fragility and importance. This paper reports findings from the Resilience in Stepfamilies project completed in 2004. It focuses on the child-stepparent relationship as assessed by multiple informants, and on the associations between its quality and outcomes for both children and families. Assessments were of affective components of the relationship, rather than behavioural. The findings indicate that this relationship is assessed as comparatively lower in quality than the relationships the child has with other adults including resident and non-resident parents. However, it proved to be salient for children's self concept, and for family cohesion and expressiveness. The involvement of stepparents in children's lives was also important for children's behaviour. These findings indicate that contrary to earlier conclusions, the relationships between children and their stepparents is a central component of wellbeing in stepfamilies and of children's behaviour.