Families and Personal Networks An International Comparative Perspective

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Kin and Non-kin Salience

As mentioned in the chapter introduction, the salience of kin and non-
kin ties in personal networks is a valid indicator of the centrality of family
in the development of personal relationships (Gouveia and Widmer
2014 ). We therefore computed the average proportion of kin and non-kin
alters (number of alters/network size). As kin alters, we considered: part-
ner, son, daughter, sister, brother, mother, father, parents-in-law, siblings-
in- law, children-in-law, grandchildren, grandparent, fictive kin, stepfamily
members, and collaterals. As non-kin alters, we considered: female friend,^2
male friend,^3 colleague, ex-partner, and other non-kin. The next figure
shows the indicators’ variations across the three countries (Fig. 3.1).
For the three countries overall, the average proportion of kin alters by
network (M = 0.84) is much higher than the average proportion of non-
kin alters (M  =  0.16), which means that nearly eight in ten network
members are linked with ego by a kinship tie. However, countries vary in
the extent to which kin alters are included in personal networks. Lithuania
stands out as the country with the highest proportion of kin, followed by
Portugal and Switzerland (F = 135.37; p < 0.001). In sum, kinship ties
are predominant in Lithuania, whereas the integration of non-kin is
higher in Switzerland. Portuguese networks, although with a strong pres-

0.85 0.72 0.92

0.15

0.28

0.08

PortugalSwitzerland Lithuania

Non–kin

Kin

Fig. 3.1 Average proportion of kin and non-kin alters in personal networks by
country (%, N = 2774)

A First Portrait of Personal Networks in a Comparative...