Families and Personal Networks An International Comparative Perspective

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at later life stages family conflicts and distance, both emotional and geo-
graphical, as well as health problems and death, may lead to more selec-
tivity within close kin relationships or simply to the absence of kin ties
that are positive and available.
The effects of this variable are very similar across the three national
contexts (Table 4.8): in all three countries, the Couple network emerges
in both birth-cohorts, the Friendship-origin network is more salient in
the younger cohort, the No-family network in the older cohort, and the
nuclear types of network stand out in the older birth-cohort due to the
late transition to parenthood in the younger cohorts. However, we can
also identify a few specific trends by country: in Switzerland, contrary
to Portugal and Lithuania, both cohorts are similarly associated with
the Siblings type of family network; in Lithuania the Nuclear-daughter
is more salient in the younger cohort whereas in the Portugal and
Lithuania both cohorts are more or less equally associated to this type
of network.

Table 4.8 Distribution of types of as-family networks by birth-cohort within each
country

Portugal Switzerland Lithuania

1950–

1955

1970–

1975 Total

1950–

1955

1970–

1975 Total

1950–

1955

1970–

1975 Total

Couple 3.5 4.5 4.0 17.3 14.9 16.2 7.4 8.0 7.7

Friendship-

origin

22.3 50.2 36.5 24.5 44.4 34.0 9.1 28.6 18.9

No-family 4.1 1.5 2.8 10.2 5.0 7.7 12.6 5.3 8.9

Siblings 8.2 15.0 11.7 13.8 12.9 13.4 8.6 14.9 11.8

Beanpole-

down

21.3 0.4 10.6 3.1 0.0 1.6 20.0 0.2 10.1

Nuclear-

daughter

15.2 13.9 14.6 11.5 9.9 10.7 14.4 20.7 17.5

Nuclear-son 18.6 11.5 14.9 15.6 10.2 13.0 20.4 16.2 18.3

Restricted

nuclear

6.8 3.0 4.9 4.1 2.8 3.4 7.6 6.1 6.9

Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
χ^2 197.39 46.09 175.28
Notes: p < 0.001; the numbers in bold correspond to the overrepresented
types of as-family networks

K. Wall et al.