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Journal of Family Issues
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29/11/1448    most recent
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Selection Versus Structure

Explaining Family Type Differences in Contact With Close Kin

Trees De Bruycker

Ghent University, Belgium, Trees.DeBruycker{at}Ugent.be

This article focuses on one aspect of family networks, namely, the frequency of contact with close kin for adults living in different traditional and new family types. Two mechanisms are hypothesized to account for the differences. The first focuses on structural factors such as the number and type of persons in the primary family network, availability of a second family network, and geographical proximity. The second is selection: Individuals with more postmodern (family) attitudes and relatively strong orientation to friends rather than to family may be selected into certain family types. Data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study ( N = 8,155) give little support for the selection hypothesis in explaining the differences in contact frequency found by family type. The structural hypothesis, however, yields significant results, with network size and geographical proximity being of key importance.

Key Words: family relations • intergenerational relations • family structure • selection • contact

This version was published on November 1, 2008

Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 29, No. 11, 1448-1470 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0192513X08318154
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