Cultural context and family support across 29 nations: evidence from the ISSP 2017 social networks and social resources module

While some comparative research suggests that countries with more individualistic values exhibit weaker filial obligation and lower reliance on family support, other work concludes that there is little difference across value systems. We shed new light on this debate leveraging data on social networks from the 2017 International Social Survey Programme in 29 countries, which span the collectivist–individualist value range. We examine links between filial obligation and reliance on family support (1) at the country level and (2) at the individual level, and the extent to which a country’s level of individualism moderates these relationships. The results show that, first, filial obligation is strongly associated with reliance on family for emotional needs at the macro level, but not with instrumental needs. Second, the association between filial obligation and family support for any type of need measured at the individual level varies significantly across countries. Moreover, contrary to our expectations, the meta-regression results indicate that the association between filial obligation and family support is stronger in more individualistic countries. This research makes an important contribution toward understanding the role of cultural norms around individualism in shaping filial obligations and the extent to which social support needs are met across countries.