Potential and Effective Support Networks of Young Italian Adults

International literature on individual behavior has shown the importance of the\r\nnetwork of relationships binding individuals to the people who are close to them in\r\neveryday life. Family and other role relations are important sources of emotional and\r\ninstrumental support, as well as social companionship. For the Italian scenario, the 2003\r\nGenerations and Gender Survey offers some challenges for constructing ego-centered\r\nsupport networks based on reasonable assumptions of the frequency of contacts and residential\r\nproximity of respondents with kin, friends and neighbors. Focusing on young\r\nItalian adults aged 18–34 years who are single or have a partner, we define two kinds of\r\nsupport networks—the potential support ego network and the effective support family\r\nnetwork—with the aim of analyzing the effects of network characteristics (size and\r\ncomposition) on the probability of receiving help. Our findings show that couples received\r\nmore support and more often than singles. Although singles’ potential support networks\r\nwere more characterized by no family ties than the ones of partners, the availability of a\r\n‘‘comprehensive’’ network or a network not ‘‘encapsulated’’ only in the family increased\r\nthe probability of receiving help in both groups. Moreover, gender differences provide\r\nevidence of distinct behavior between partners in activating their network for (family)\r\nsupport.