Kin or Credit? Credit Use and the Withholding of Support to Kin

• In Event: 3148 - Unconventional Support and Care

Abstract

Kin often extend support to each other, such as help with child-care, repairs, and financial transfers. Individuals, however, do not always desire to support their kin in these ways. Yet, few studies have explored what strategies individuals who prefer not to support their kin deploy in order to limit their support to kin. In this study, we help advance this line of research by exploring whether these individuals use indebtedness as a strategy of kin support withholding. Using the National Survey of Families and Households, we show that these individuals use credit in order to avoid to ask their kin for support and thus to limit the reciprocity demands they receive. We also find that these individuals use credit to protect their income and justify reducing their financial transfers to kin. Our analyses contribute both to the de-familialization literature and to research on the social uses of credit.

Authors

• Maude Pugliese, McGill University

• Céline Le Bourdais, McGill University

• Shelley Clark, McGill University