155Main Factors Shaping Personal Configurations
In the following paragraphs, which tie together the material gathered so
far in this chapter, we describe the main factors shaping each personal
configuration and portray the diversity of individuals’ personal relation-
ships in Portugal, Lithuania, and Switzerland. We will not comment,
however, on Alone configurations, because the numbers are very small,
and it is hard to explain their significance without over-interpreting. It
should just be noted that they are more frequent in Switzerland and
Lithuania than in Portugal.
The Standard-nuclear configuration is the only type of personal con-
figuration evenly represented in our three countries of interest. It is a
configuration focused on the partner and the children and is therefore
only developed by individuals who have transitioned to parenthood. The
spread of this configuration shows the importance of the family of procre-
ation in contemporary Western societies, regardless of the type of welfare
regime. It is also a configuration mostly developed by older individuals
belonging to the 1950–1955 birth cohort. It means that the children who
are mentioned are in most cases adolescent or adult children. It indicates
that the parent–child relationship is especially important for middle- aged
people in their 50s or approaching their 60s and retirement age. When
individuals are younger, they may not perceive their young children as
independent individuals who should be mentioned as such in their per-
sonal networks. The family of procreation is certainly very significant in
their everyday life experiences, but their networks may be more open to
other relationships. When ageing, relationships with children may
become more voluntary, or less based on functional dependencies linked
to the sharing of a common household. At the country level, some other
aspects are associated with the Standard-nuclear configuration. In
Switzerland individuals with lower levels of educational attainment are
more likely to have formed such a configuration. The association with a
lower socio-economic position may indicate intergenerational transfers
and residual functional dependencies between children and parents.
Narrow-nuclear configurations are very similar to Standard-nuclear
configurations in that they include the same set of ties related to the fam-
ily of procreation, while being smaller. They are more prominent in
Mapping the Plurality of Personal Configurations