Following this perspective, Fischer (1982) documented the effect of location on the quality and structure of personal networks. He found that individuals in the city differed from rural counterparts in that they had fewer kin or more unrelated intimates in their personal networks. However, the effect of place alone was quite small.
The single most important predictor of non-kin networks was education: the more the years of education the more nonrelatives an individual had on one’s personal network.
Income was also an important factor which contributed to independence from relatives.
Network analysis also discovered that as the metropolitan environment of cities and suburbs has matured, people now organize their lives across a greater spatial distance than in the past. Close relations are typically beyond neighbourhood |
