Personal social networks of Portuguese childless elder people and older parents

The relevance of informal social support from family is crucial for the elderly in Portugal given the large margins of lack of social protection from the public policies. We present a study that aims to analyze the structural... [ view full abstract ]

The relevance of informal social support from family is crucial for the elderly in Portugal given the large margins of lack of social protection from the public policies. We present a study that aims to analyze the structural and functional characteristics of the personal social networks of Portuguese elder with and without offspring.

We had 446 participants aged between 65 and 98 years old (M = 76; SD = 7,6), mainly women (64%) and married (62%) or widowed (36%). 13% are childless and the other 87% (n = 389) are parents of 2,35 sons/daughters in average (SD = 1,4; from 1 to 10), 26% with an only child. Their personal social networks characteristics were assessed with the Personal Social Network Analysis Tool (IARSP-Elder) (Guadalupe, 2010).

When we compare the characteristics of social networks of those who are childless with those who are parents, the results show structural differences in the network size (p < 0,001), and in its composition, but no differences in the main functional variables. The personal social network of the parents is larger (M = 8,05 vs. 5,93) and the proportion of family is 30% higher, when compared with the childless (p < 0,001). The childless elderly have a higher percentage of friends (M = 25,75% vs. 10,04%) and neighbours (M = 19,13% vs. 6,56%) in their networks in comparison with the parents (p ≤ 0,001).

The main findings indicate that the structure of personal social networks is different in the groups we compared, which reflects a family-centered network for the older parents and a friendship and neighborhood network for the childless elderly, problably to compensate the lack of offspring. Regarding the “familist” trend in social networks and social services in Portugal, Social Work must reflect on these indicators for rethinking social services’ strategies.