Blue-collar Kin and Community in the Small-town Midwest

Abstract

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.

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