Background to the Research

• This chapter focuses on a number of key aspects of social life in NI, in particular, informal relations in the family and wider society. It explores the frequency of respondents' contact with their family and close friends, their normative orientation towards relationships with family and friends, their sources of social support and the extent of social isolation.
• Comparisons are also made with attitudes towards family and social networks in Britain.
  

Research Approach

• The data used by the author come from the 2001 NILT survey.
• The NILT survey began in 1998 and is carried out annually. Interviews are conducted with a random selection of adults (aged 18 years and over) who live in private households in NI.
• The sample size for the 2001 NILT survey was 1,800 respondents.
• A number of the same questions were also included in the 2001 British Social Attitudes survey, thus allowing for comparisons with Britain.
  

Main Findings

• 41% of respondents in NI see or visit a non-resident adult child every day and 23% see their mother on a similarly frequent basis.
• Over two thirds of respondents (70%) live within a thirty-minute journey time of their mother's house.
• The least frequently seen or visited relatives are siblings and few respondents report having no face-to-face contact with their close relatives.
• 67% of respondents see or visit their father at least once a week, with 19% seeing him on a daily basis
• The proportion of respondents who have daily contact with close relatives is approximately three times higher in NI than in Britain.
• Fewer respondents in NI than in Britain say they have no contact with their wider family network.
• Three quarters of respondents agree with the statement that 'you should take care of yourself and your family first before helping other people'.
• More than three fifths of respondents in NI (61%) agree that 'adult children have a duty to look after their elderly parents', compared with 46% of their counterparts in Britain.
• Nine out of ten respondents in both NI and Britain would turn first to a member of their immediate family if they needed help with a household chore while they were ill and 71% would turn to family members if they were depressed.
• 84% of respondents in NI see or visit their best friend at least once a week compared with 60% of respondents who live in Britain.
• One in eight NI respondents (13%) claim that they have no close friends.
• Approximately one half of NI respondents are not members of any kind of voluntary groups or associations.
• 74% of respondents in NI and 81% in Britain say that 'there are only a few people I can trust completely'.
• The majority of respondents in NI (over 60%) feel that people like them have little or no chance of influencing the government, or of understanding what goes on in politics. Furthermore, 66% feel that the identity of the party in government does not matter very much since things go on in much the same way as ever.