"Different
Strokes from Different Folks: Community Ties and Social Support"
Barry Wellman and Scott Wortley. 1990. American Journal of Sociology
96 (Nov.): 558-88.
ABSTRACT
Community ties with
friends and relatives are a principal means by which people and households get
supportive resources. Quantitative and qualitative data from the second East York
study are used to evaluate six potential explanations of why different types of
ties provide different kinds of supportive resources: tie strength, contact, group
processes, kinship, network members' characteristics, and similarities and dissimilarities
between network members in such characteristics. Most relationships provide specialized
support. The kinds of support provided are related more to characteristics of
the relationship than to characteristics of the network members themselves. Strong
ties provide emotional aid, small services, and companionship. Parents and adult
children exchange financial aid, emotional aid, large services, and small services.
Women provide emotional aid. Friends, neighbors and siblings make up about half
of all supportive relationships. The ensemble of network members supplies stable
and adaptive support.