106
Co-residence over the life course and emotional support are both sig-
nificant drivers of family meaning. With regard to co-residence, Table 4.2
shows that the majority of alters perceived as family (between 74% and
89%) lived with ego at some point in his/her life. Compared to personal
networks, the salience of co-residence is therefore stronger in all three
countries, representing an increase of 7% in Portugal, 23% in Switzerland,
and 7% in Lithuania. In the case of Portugal, the less significant role of
co-residence may be explained by the high number of kin (grandchil-
dren, in-laws) and non-kin who are considered as family but are not
likely to have lived in the same household as ego.
With regard to emotional support, findings also reveal the role of the
latter in generating closeness and family meaning in personal relation-
ships. However, as for co-residence, this is a very important but not an
overriding principle. In Portugal, a very high percentage—89.7%—of all
alters perceived as family would be expected to provide emotional sup-
port in case of need. In Lithuania, the percentage and frequency is also
high even if slightly lower than for co-residence: of all persons perceived
as family, 79.4% would be expected to provide emotional support to ego
in case of need. If we look separately at the non-kin alters considered as
family, the percentage of alters who would give emotional support
remains high but lower than for kin: 82% of non-kin considered as fam-
ily would provide emotional support in Portugal and 73.2% in Lithuania.
Lastly, compared to personal networks, the salience of emotional support
provided by persons perceived as family is only slightly higher, represent-
ing an increase of 2.8% in Portugal (up from 86.9%) and 1% in Lithuania
(up from 78.4%).^3
Looking more closely now at the ties perceived as-family we can exam-
ine the main categories of kin and non-kin perceived as-family as well as
the overall prominence of different blood and alliance principles in fam-
ily meaning (Table 4.3). A first important finding is the overrepresenta-
tion of the nuclear family of procreation and orientation in all three
countries. Children are the main category of ties perceived as family
(31.8% in Portugal; 29.7% in Switzerland; 38.0% in Lithuania), fol-
lowed by partners (19.4% in Portugal; 26.6% in Switzerland; 20.8% in
Lithuania), parents (14.3% in Portugal; 13.3% in Switzerland; 16% in
Lithuania, with a very high proportion of mothers—10%—in this last
K. Wall et al.