This study examines community, kin networks, and family life linkages in a working-class small town. Specifically, household perceptions of community and kin networks obtained from an ethnographic study of a small Midwestern town are linked in a second interview study to residents' assessments of their personal well-being and the quality of their family relationships. The simple presence of kin nearby, however, is shown to be unrelated to either personal well-being or the quality of family relationships. Only when kin in close proximity are viewed as supportive does their presence have positive implications for family life. In fact, families are better off with no kin living nearby than with nonsupportive relatives in the same community. The findings highlight the importance of using an ecological perspective to disentangle the many layers of contexts that interact and affect the daily lives and relationships of families.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Berger, B. (1960). Working-class suburb. Berkeley: University of California Press.
2.
Bokemeier, J. L. , & Tickameyer, A. R. (1985). Labor force experiences of nonmetropolitan women. Rural Sociology, 50, 51-73.
3.
Bott, E. (1971). Family and social network (2nd ed.). London: Tavistock.
4.
Braiker, H. B. , & Kelley, H. H. (1979). Conflict in the development of close relationships. In R. L. Burgess & T. L. Huston (Eds.), Social exchange in developing relationships (pp. 135-168). San Diego: Academic Press.
5.
Bronfenbrenner, U. , Moen, P., & Garbarino, J. (1984). Child, family, and community. In R. Parke (Ed.), Review of child development research: The family (pp. 230-252). Chicago: Chicago University Press.
6.
Coleman, J. (1990). Foundations of social theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
7.
Elder, G. H., Jr. , & Conger, R. D. (2000). Children of the land: Adversity and success in rural America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
8.
Fischer, C. S. (1976). The urban experience. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
9.
Fischer, C. S. (1982). To dwell among friends: Personal networks in town and city. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
10.
Freudenberg, W. R. (1986). The density of acquaintanceship: An overlooked variable in community research. American Journal of Sociology, 92, 27-63.
11.
Fried, M. (1963). Grieving for a lost home. In L. J. Duhl (Ed.), The urban condition: People and policy in the metropolis (pp. 151-171). New York: Basic Books.
12.
Gilbert, D. , & Kahl, J. A. (1993). The American class structure: A synthesis. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
13.
Hasselmo, N. (1976). Swedish America: An introduction. Minneapolis, MN: Brings Press.
14.
Hill, R. (1970). Family development in three generations. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman.
15.
Himmelfarb, S. , & Murrell, S. A. (1983). Reliability and validity of five mental health scales in older persons. Journal of Gerontology, 38, 333-339.
16.
Howells, J. (1991). Hard living on Clay Street (2nd ed.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
17.
Hughes, R. (1988). Divorce and social support: A review. Journal of Divorce, 11, 123-145.
18.
Hummon, D. M. (1990). Commonplaces: Community ideology and identity in American culture. Albany: State University of New York Press.
19.
Johnson, K. M. , & Beale, C. L. (1998). The rural rebound. The Wilson Quarterly, 22(2), 16-27.
20.
Komarovsky, M. (1967). Blue-collar marriage. New York: Vintage.
21.
LeMasters, E. E. (1975). Blue-collar aristocrats: Lifestyles at a working-class tavern. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
22.
Logan, J. R. , & Spitze, G. D. (1994). Family neighbors. American Journal of Sociology, 100, 453-476.
23.
Perin, C. (1988). Belonging in America. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
24.
Radloff, L. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385-401.
25.
Rosenberg, M. (1979). Conceiving the self. New York: Basic Books.
26.
Rubin, L. B. (1976). Worlds of pain: Life in the working-class family. New York: Basic Books.
27.
Rubin, L. B. (1994). Families on the fault line: America's working class speaks about the family, the economy, race and ethnicity. New York: HarperCollins.
28.
Salamon, S. (1992). Prairie patrimony: Family, farm, and community in the Midwest. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
29.
Salamon, S. (in press). Newcomers to old towns: Suburbanization of the heartland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
30.
Salamon, S. , Gengenbacher, K. M., & Penas, D. J. (1986). Family factors affecting the intergenerational succession to farming. Human Organization, 45, 24-33.
31.
Salamon, S. , & Tornatore, J. B. (1994). Territory contested through property in a midwestern post-agricultural community. Rural Sociology, 59, 636-654.
32.
Stacey, J. (1991). Brave new families: Stories of domestic upheaval in late twentieth century America. New York: Basic Books.
33.
Szinovacz, M. E. (1983). Role allocation, family structure, and female employment. Advances in Family Psychiatry, 2, 481-498.
34.
U.S. Bureau of the Census . (1990). Census of population and housing, 1990. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
35.
Weissman, M. M. , Sholomskas, D., Pottenger, M., Prusoff, B. A., & Locke, B. Z. (1977). Assessing depressive symptoms in five psychiatric populations: A validation study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 106, 203-214.
36.
Wellman, B. (1985). Domestic work, paid work and net work. In S. W. Duck & D. Perlman (Eds.), Understanding personal relationships (pp. 159-191). London: Sage.
37.
Wellman, B. , & Wellman, B. (1992). Domestic affairs and network relations. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 9, 385-409.
38.
Vaux, A. , Phillips, J., Holly, L., Thomson, B., Williams, D., & Stewart, D. (1985). The Social Support Appraisals (SS-A) Scale: Studies of reliability and validity. American Journal of Community Psychology, 14, 195-219.
