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May 1998 - Ref 578 A new report examines the 1986 and 1995 British Social Attitudes survey data on kinship in more detail than has been previously possible, focusing in particular on the experiences and attitudes of families with dependent children. It shows that:
Introduction In 1986, British Social Attitudes (BSA) fielded for the first time in Britain a module of questions about kinship and friendship among a nationally representative sample of adults living in private households. The module covered a range of issues to do with contact with relatives and friends, and the extent to which people felt able to call upon different forms of support in particular situations. The results showed that most people keep in regular contact with relatives, and that, after spouses or partners, often seek help in a wide range of situations from parents, children and other relatives. The 1995 BSA survey repeated many of the questions included in the 1986 survey, offering the first opportunity to measure change over time in kinship behaviour and attitudes among a nationally representative sample of the British population. The results show that, although most people are still in frequent contact with their immediate family, contact has fallen over the last decade. However, family relationships still appear to be of primary importance in most people's lives. This study is largely based upon those respondents in the 1986 and 1995 BSA sample who had a dependent child aged under 16 living with them in the household. Contact with relatives Results show that people with dependent children are more likely to see their relatives than those without dependent children. The notable exception to this concerns mothers, with roughly similar proportions of both groups (around a half) seeing their mother every week. However, having a dependent child is linked to increased contact with fathers, siblings and other relatives. Only a small proportion of people report that they never see any relatives, with the relative most commonly not seen being a father. One in ten people with fathers who are still alive say that they never see him. This does not vary according to whether there is a dependent child in the household or not. Women with dependent children see their relatives more frequently than men with dependent children. In particular, women with dependent children are more likely than their male counterparts to see their own mothers every week. Women with dependent children are also substantially more likely than men to speak regularly on the telephone to relatives - especially when the relative in question is their mother. Lone parents also appear to have more contact with their own mothers than parents living with partners. The study further shows that manual workers with dependent children are more likely than non-manual workers to have 'frequent' contact with relatives (i.e. see them at least once a week, or seeing them on a weekly basis). This holds true even once geographical proximity is taken into account (manual workers tend to live nearer their relatives than non-manual workers). Living in a two-parent family where both partners work affects the frequency of telephone contact with relatives, with dual-earner families being more likely than single-earner families to have weekly contact with relatives. Analysis confirms that women living near their own mothers are highly likely to be seeing them on a weekly basis. Once gender and geographical proximity have been taken into account, social class, as well as whether a person has a dependent child, does not have a significant bearing on contact levels.
Nevertheless, having a dependent child does seem to matter when it comes to having contact with relatives outside the immediate family (that is, aunts and uncles, 'in-laws', cousins and so on), with those with dependent children being significantly more likely than those without to see a relative on a weekly basis - even when differences in geographical proximity are take into account. Class also matters, with those from non-manual social classes being less likely than those from manual ones to see relatives this often.
Declining family contact The BSA data show that overall levels of contact with relatives have fallen over the last decade. The study demonstrates that this is also evident among families with dependent children. For example, weekly contact with mothers (i.e. the child's grandmother) has fallen by nine percentage points, from 59 per cent in 1986 to 50 per cent in 1995. Among those with children aged under 5, contact with mothers has fallen by 11 per cent, from 62 per cent to 51 per cent. This fall in family contact partly stems from increased geographical distance between families, although there are also some signs of falling telephone contact with relatives. The group which has seen one of the biggest falls in contact is non-manual workers with dependent children. This fall, particularly in parental contact, has been dramatic - with a drop of 19 percentage points in the proportion of non-manual workers with dependent children who see their mother on a weekly basis and of 15 points in the proportion seeing their father this often. Among manual workers there has been no significant change in levels of maternal or paternal contact. An increase in average journey times to relatives appears to play some part in the apparent decline in non-manual workers' contact. The study shows that there has been a rise in the proportion of non-manual workers with a dependent child who now live over one hour's journey time from relatives, with a rise of 12 per cent in the number now living over an hour from their own parents. However, increased journey time does not solely account for the fall in contact identified. Sources of help The 1986 and 1995 BSA survey asked respondents who they would turn to for help in the following situations:
Not surprisingly, the overall results show that spouses and partners are the most important source of support when it comes to practical problems, with parents and friends playing a bigger role when the problems are less routine or where a spouse or partner may be less appropriate. The same is true of those with dependent children, although here spouses and partners are even more crucial sources of support than they are for the general population. Although men and women with dependent children do not differ markedly in who they would approach for help with routine tasks, such as household jobs, in other situations women are more likely than men to rely upon friends and other family members - especially when the problems discussed are emotional ones. Who people would turn to in times of need has not changed markedly over the last decade. However, people with dependent children are more likely now than they were in 1986 to rely on relatives for help with borrowing money, and to rely on friends for help with emotional problems, but the differences are slight. Providing and receiving help The 1995 BSA survey also asked respondents about whether they had received (or provided) two specific examples of help or care during the past five years - 'regular help or care because of pregnancy, an illness, disability or other problem' and 'a loan or gift of money, of £100 or more, to help with some emergency or problem'. The overall results from the survey show that around one in five people had received care at some point over the previous five years. In this respect people do not differ particularly, although a slightly higher proportion of those with children under 5 reported having received such care, presumably because of the care received during pregnancy. Nearly a third of the overall sample had received financial help from a relative or friend, rising to 41 per cent among those with dependent children. Those with very young children were even more likely to have received financial help in this way. The most important source of care for those with dependent children is the same as it is among those without dependent children - a spouse or a partner. Among those with dependent children, the next most common source of help is a parent, whereas for those without dependent children it is another relative. Parents are particularly important sources of help for those with very young dependent children. Among this group they account for nearly a third of the help received. Attitudes towards the family To find out how family-oriented (or 'family-centred') people are, the 1995 BSA survey included a series of positive and negative statements about the family, and asked people how much they agreed or disagreed with each. These questions were not asked in the 1986 survey, and a comparison of responses over time is therefore not possible. The overall findings were that the majority of the adult population are very family-centred. The whole BSA survey found a very clear link between attitudes towards the family and age, with older people being much more likely to have a family-centred outlook than younger ones. Consequently, given their younger age, it is not surprising that those with dependent children are actually less family-centred than those without dependent children. Statistical models confirm that the key characteristic associated with a family-centred outlook is age. Once this is taken into account, the presence or absence of a child does not emerge as significantly related to a particular family-centred outlook. When it comes to attitudes towards the family, there is surprisingly little variation among those with dependent children. Men and women in this category are very similar in their views, mirroring the situation in the population as a whole (only when it comes to those over 45 are women substantially more family-centred than men).
Non-manual and manual workers are also almost indistinguishable in their attitudes to the family. While both non-manual and manual workers overwhelmingly believe that the family is more important than friends, the strength of this conviction is slightly lower among non-manual workers than among manual workers. Only one in sixteen manual workers (6 per cent) would rather spend time with friends than family, compared with one in six non-manual workers (15 per cent). There are also no essential differences between the attitudes of those from one-parent and two-parent families, nor between single- earner and dual-earner two-parent families.
Conclusions Relatives are important in the lives of most young parents, with the majority of people with dependent children remaining in frequent contact with their immediate family. However, contact with relatives is clearly less extensive than it was a decade or so ago, and this decline is only partly explained by increasing geographical distance between family members. Nonetheless, relatives (particularly parents) remain a crucial source of aid and assistance for families with young children. People with a dependent child appear to be less 'family-centred' than those without. This appears largely to reflect their relative youth rather than the fact that they are parents. It also suggests that differences in attitudes towards the family may reflect 'generational' differences and hence that attitudes within society as a whole will change as younger generations replace older ones. About the study The BSA 'kinship and friendship' module was administered to a random two-thirds (around 2,100) of the 1995 BSA sample. The questions were contained in a self-completion questionnaire given to respondents after the main face-to-face interview. Respondents with a dependent child comprised just under a third (29 per cent) of the kinship and friendship module and yielded around 600 respondents. The 1986 module was administered to a random sample of around 1,400 respondents also in a self-completion questionnaire. Respondents with a dependent child comprised just over a third of the sample (34 per cent) and yielded around 470 respondents. How to get further information A full report, Families and Kinship by Francis McGlone, Alison Park and Kate Smith, is published in the Family & Parenthood Policy & Practice series by the Family Policy Studies Centre in association with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. (price £9.95 ISBN 1 901455 13 0).Click on the 'order report' icon in the left margin to order online. |
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