105in Switzerland, representing a drop of about 10% in Portugal (9.6%) and
in Lithuania (10.8%) and 31% in Switzerland.
These findings raise an additional question. If a considerable number of
important persons are not perceived as family, does this mean that many
individuals end up with a network in which no one is family (in other
words, a no-family network)? Once again, results vary by country. Although
representing residual values, a considerably higher number of individuals
do not consider any of their personal network members as family in
Switzerland (n = 38) and Lithuania (n = 35) when compared to Portugal
(n = 8). This suggests that the social drive towards the building up of family
meaning in personal networks may be stronger in some normative contexts
than in others. In Portugal, in particular, this would seem to be the case.
Focusing now on family ties, it is important to analyse the characteris-
tics of network members perceived as-family (Table 4.2). As mentioned
above, after listing the most important persons in their life during the
past year, respondents identified whom they consider as-family. Looking
at who is included, overall results show the strong salience of kinship ties
(92% in Portugal and Switzerland, 98.5% in Lithuania) but there is also
evidence of some elective ties being perceived as family: 7.9% in Portugal,
8.3% in Switzerland, and only 1.5% in Lithuania.
Regarding the dimension of as-family networks, the network size is
higher in Portugal (M = 4.01; SD = 2.22); followed by Lithuania
(M = 3.06; SD = 1.78) and Switzerland (M = 2.79; SD = 1.86).^2
Table 4.2 Characteristics of members perceived as-family. Frequency in absolute
numbers and percentage of alters with each attribute
Portugal
(N = 4143)Switzerland
(N = 2029)Lithuania
(N = 3086)
% N % N % N
Kin 92.1 3808 91.7 1860 98.5 3031
Non-kin 7.9 325 8.3 169 1.5 46
Co-residence 74.2 3065 85.2 1729 88.7 2731
Non co-residence 25.8 1068 14.8 300 11.3 349
Emotional support expected 89.7 3707 ... ... 79.4 2450
Emotional support not expected 10.3 436 ... ... 20.6 636
Note: The numbers in bold correspond to the categories which are
overrepresented based on χ^2 tests and standardized residuals
Changing Meanings of Family in Personal Relationships...