Working-class people see their parents, or break off contact with them, more often than people in other socio-occupational categories
The frequency of moments spent with parents in France differs by socio-occupational category. Seeing one’s parents every week or, on the contrary, no longer seeing them at all is more often observed among working-class people.
Managers see their parents less often and are more geographically mobile than people in other socio-occupational categories
Visiting one’s parents, having them over, and/or seeing them regularly in other settings are practices that vary by social milieu. Among men and women aged 18 to 79 who no longer live with their parents and still have at least one living parent, only 30% of managers see one or both parents a minimum of once a week, as against 56% of self-employed persons, 49% of relatively low-skilled office employees, and 52% of skilled manual workers. These differences are explained in part by the fact that working-class people live geographically closer to their parents than people in other socio-occupational categories: 73% of skilled manual workers still live in the region they spent their childhood in, as against 54% of managers.
When parents live near-by, working-class people see them more regularly
However, the strong geographical mobility of managers does not suffice to explain these disparities. Among men and women still living in their childhood region, office employees, manual workers, and self-employed people always see their parents more regularly and more often than other socio-occupational categories (Figure). Whereas 44% of managers see their parents at least once a week, the figure rises as high as 66% and 68%, respectively, for men and women office employees and relatively unskilled manual workers. These differences may be interpreted as reflecting a working-class lifestyle particularly centered on family ties. Although several studies have shown that this kind of close focus on family varies in shape by gender, the frequency itself of seeing parents does not vary by that criterion.
Whereas people of working-class background are more likely than others to see their parents on a daily basis, when it comes to seeing them less often, disparities between socio-occupational then to be effaced. For example, there is no socio-occupational category-based difference for seeing both parents at least once a month.
No longer seeing one’s parents is a behavior more frequently found among office and manual workers
Moreover, never seeing parents is found most often for office staff and manual workers—a finding observation still more pronounced for individuals who no longer live in their childhood region: 3% of managers never see their parents, as against 10% of office staff and 15% of manual workers. Working-class people are therefore overrepresented both among individuals who see their parents regularly and those who no longer have any face-to-face contact with them. And these disparities subsist at comparable characteristics or levels of educational attainment, age, migrant status and trajectory, whether or not one has children, and urban or rural residential context.
Referens
Author: Romain PHILIT
To learn more:
Frauenfelder A. 2009. Le rapport des classes populaires à la famille : une affinité non élective. In Delay C. et al. (dir.). Les classes populaires aujourd’hui (p. 311-348). L’Harmattan.
Siblot Y., Cartier M., Coutant I., Masclet O. et Renahy N.,2015. La famille, l’espace local et l’école : la recomposition des processus de socialisation en milieu populaire. In Sociologie des classes populaires contemporaines (p.131-177). Armand Colin.