Gender and informal social support in Spanish culture

Abstract

This paper analyses informal social support as a relevant factor in the process of maintaining the Spanish welfare state. There has been considerable theoretical discussion but little empirical work done to determine the factors that influence the provision of this type of support. More specifically, this article explores the factors that determine the provision of informal social aid in Spanish society at the beginning of the twenty-first century.Using data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), we examine three kinds of informal social support offered by the Spanish: emotional, domestic and economical. The form of aid they offer most frequently is emotional support. Gender has a significant impact on emotional and domestic support, although we do not observe a gender effect in the case of economic support.