Revisiting the Bott thesis on kin networks and marriage

Studying families in post-war London, Elizabeth Bott hypothesized that tight-knit kinship networks fostered gender segregated, rather than joint, conjugal role-relationships for husband and wife. Addressing this hypothesis with 2001 International Social Survey Program for 29 countries, this paper considers one aspect of joint role-relationships – whether married women prefer to turn to their husband, as opposed to kin, for household help and emotional support. Women with tight-knit kin who fill multiple functions in their lives are less likely to prefer to rely on husbands. Residential mobility is associated with greater reliance on the spouse, but there is no indication that the importance of kinship is diminished when mobility is controlled.