Impact of Individual, Family and Community Characteristics on Inter-Generational Support: An Analysis of the Canadian 1996 General Social Survey on Social and Community Support

Fernando Rajulton, University of Western Ontario
Zenaida R. Ravanera, University of Western Ontario

Types of family cohesion are constructed using three dimensions of inter-generational relationships: (a) affinity, essentially comprising emotional closeness; (b) opportunity structure, referring to frequency of contact and residential proximity; and, (c) functional exchange, referring to flows of various kinds of instrumental support among family members. Canadians belong mostly to the following four types: detached (not involved in inter-generational support), functional (mainly involved in instrumental exchanges), obligatory (involved in both opportunity structures and functional exchanges), and tight-knit (involved in all three dimensions). The data are from the 1996 General Social Survey on Family and Community Support. At our request, Statistics Canada merged the survey data with the community information derived for enumeration areas from the 1996 Census. This merger allows examining the influences on inter-generational support not only of individual but also of community characteristics. The statistical methodology involves binary and multinomous logistic regressions in the framework of structural equation modeling.