This Article Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0192513X08318154v1 29/11/1448    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by De Bruycker, T. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Selection Versus Structure: Explaining Family Type Differences in Contact With Close Kin

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Trees.DeBruycker{at}Ugent.be.

	Abstract

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.

First published on May 27, 2008, doi:10.1177/0192513X08318154

Journal of Family Issues 2008;29:1448.

A more recent version of this article appeared on November 1, 2008


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?