229effects and different demographic reservoirs, individuals from the older
cohort are more likely to build up Nuclear or Beanpole configurations,
while individuals from the younger cohort, who often have not have
made the transition to parenthood, are more likely to build up Parent,
Extended conjugal, and Mixed configurations. Life trajectories, analysed
in this book through an in-depth examination of individuals’ co- residence
trajectories over the last 20 years, were thus found to be a particularly
consistent and strong predictor of personal configurations: for example,
Nuclear configurations are strongly predicted by trajectories centred on
parenthood, while Sibling-oriented, Friendship and Wo rk-oriented config-
urations were found to be associated with individuals who had experi-
enced many years of living alone or being part of a lone-parent family.
Gender also has some impact, in particular on kin-oriented configura-
tions, with women more likely to develop larger networks which include
intergenerational and collateral kin relationships. Men, on the other
hand, are more likely to develop smaller networks, such as the Narrow-
nuclear configurations, or to mention no meaningful or important per-
sonal relationships at all.
Interestingly, the elective-oriented configurations centred on non-kin
ties (Friendship and Wo rk) are a significant feature of both the younger
and the older birth cohort, suggesting that greater flexibility in the con-
struction of relationships is reflected today in the personal networks of all
individuals over the life course. Friends in particular are important
regardless of age (though not regardless of life trajectories, in particular
those involving parenthood), whereas work-oriented relationships are
more likely to be perceived as important by individuals belonging to the
younger cohort and those with solo life trajectories and a higher level of
educational attainment. In contrast, individuals with lower educational
levels are more likely to construct personal networks centred on close kin
ties from the family of procreation and orientation. The lower the level of
education, the higher proportion of kin in personal networks; the greater
the openness to new family forms, the lower the proportion of kin. This
structural and normative differentiation related to kin and non-kin ties
also questions the assumed chosen nature of friendship, as the inclusion
of non-kin is also constrained by life trajectories, educational resources,
and attitudes.
Conclusions