January 15, 2026 | News

Important Relatives

Family research usually focuses on the nuclear family, i.e. the father, mother and children. Relationships with other relatives have hardly been studied to date. Yet these relationships play an important role.

Four people are relaxing and enjoying a meal together with wine and cheese on an outdoor terrace.

Scientists have developed a typology of relationship quality for younger adults in the United States, taking into account variations in nuclear and extended family relations across different kinship types and racial/ethnic groups. © iStockphoto.com / FG Trade

How did families function during the pandemic? How did uncles and aunts support working parents? What conflicts arise between the generations? And how willing are families to provide financial or practical support to each other? Families are the focus of research from many perspectives. However, most of this research focuses on the nuclear family: father, mother and child(ren). Relationships with other relatives, such as between adult siblings or cousins, are often overlooked. Yet, as the few studies on this topic show, extended families and more distant relatives also play an important role in socialisation, integration and support. The cultural and ethnic differences that shape these dynamics have also received little research attention to date. For example, studies from the US show that, in Black families, horizontal relatives such as half-siblings and cousins often support each other. These networks provide financial and social support, mitigating social exclusion and economic insecurity. Mexican and Puerto Rican families are more likely to live in the same household or close by than white families. Asian-American families are characterised by strong cohesion and commitment.
To better study the complexity of these multi-layered relationships, Bettina Hünteler, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, has developed a typology of relationship quality with her colleagues. This classification categorises relationships according to how pronounced different relationship dimensions are. These dimensions are derived from the “paradigm of intergenerational solidarity”, which has become the standard for assessing and describing the feelings, behaviours, attitudes, values and structural conditions of intergenerational relationships. The model posits that intergenerational solidarity consists of six components: emotional closeness, social contact, geographical proximity, supportive behaviour, parental obligations and agreement on attitudes. Bettina Hünteler's research aims to characterise the quality of young adults' relationships with family members of varying degrees of kinship. For her study, she used data from the KINMATRIX survey. This relatively new dataset involved surveying around 12,000 young adults aged 25 to 35 from ten countries about their relationships with other family members. The data provides information about respondents' relationships with members of their nuclear family (parents and siblings), extended family (grandparents and half-siblings) and more distant relatives (aunts, uncles and cousins). Only people from the US were surveyed for this study. To make statements about the quality of relationships between young adults and their family members, the researcher used the following six indicators: 1. geographical proximity to relatives, 2. frequency of contact, 3. emotional closeness, 4. social support, 5. financial support and 6. conflict. These six indicators cover four of the six components of the 'paradigm of intergenerational solidarity'.

Bar chart shows distribution of relationship types to relatives by type of kinship with decreasing intensity from closely connected to distant.

The bars show the absolute average number of relatives with each type of relationship. Taking paternal cousins (2nd category of relatives from the bottom), for example, a person has on average around 0.23 cousins with whom they are closely related (red), 0.4 with whom they are connected but autonomous (black), 0.02 with whom the relationship is disharmonious but supportive (dark gray), 0.1 with whom the relationship is familiar but distant (blue), and 3.44 with whom they have a distant relationship (light gray). Source: KINMATRIX, own calculations © MPIDR

The scientist found that there are five classes of typical relationship pattern in family relationships: 'tight-knit', 'connected but autonomous', 'disharmonious but supportive', 'intimate but distant', and 'detached'. Each of these is precisely characterised: for instance, 'tight-knit' relationships are characterised by proximity of residence, frequent contact, high emotional closeness, social and financial support, and relatively little conflict. In contrast, 'detached' relationships are characterised by low intensity in all dimensions.
The researcher found that the weaker the relationship between two people, the more distant it is. The strongest bonds are with the nuclear family, particularly with mothers. Nevertheless, many people also maintain close relationships with relatives outside the nuclear family, such as half-siblings and grandparents, especially grandmothers or maternal aunts. Interestingly, up to 20 per cent of relationships within nuclear families are 'detached', particularly with fathers and siblings. This finding is consistent with recent research on 'estrangement' in parent–child and sibling relationships in adulthood. Conversely, only around six per cent of relationships with distant relatives are 'close'. However, these relationships account for 20 per cent of all 'close' relationships. Although 'close' ties are significantly less common, their high prevalence, particularly among cousins, makes them a significant network.
According to the researcher, the importance of distant relatives is remarkable. Because they are so numerous, they could be a valuable “relationship reserve” in difficult times. This “relationship reserve” has been overlooked in earlier studies that focused only on the nuclear family. The high number of close ties to distant relatives is particularly significant in this regard. The probability of someone having a close bond with a distant relative is significantly lower than with members of the nuclear family. However, since there are significantly more distant relatives than nuclear family members, this extended family clearly plays a significant role in the wider family network, or the 'latent kin matrix', which can provide support in times of need.

Bar chart shows the average number of relatives by relationship type and ethnic group in family networks.

The figure shows the absolute number of relatives in each relationship type for the various kinship categories, differentiated by race/ethnicity. There are clear differences between the various groups. However, the following applies to all: the bond with the nuclear family is the strongest, but the extended network should not be underestimated due to its size. Source: KINMATRIX, own calculations © MPIDR

In a second step, the researcher investigated whether family relationships differ between different racial/ethnic groups. The young people surveyed could be assigned to the following groups: “Non-Hispanic White”, “Hispanic”, “Non-Hispanic Black”, and “Non-Hispanic Asian”. The researcher found many similarities between the groups, but also clear differences. For example, Asian respondents focused more on maintaining close family ties than other ethnic groups did. This corresponds to the Confucian tradition of 'filial piety', which requires children to obey and respect their parents, and is more prevalent in Asian-American families.
In Black families, however, bonds within the nuclear family tend to be weaker, primarily due to the weaker bond between the young adults surveyed and their fathers. At the same time, however, these young adults are more integrated into their extended family circle, with almost half of all close bonds among young Black adults being with members of their extended family. Furthermore, Black respondents were more likely to have a larger number of 'connected but autonomous' relationships, particularly within the extended family but also within the nuclear family with siblings. This suggests that weaker ties within the nuclear family may be offset by stronger connections within the extended family. Previous studies have shown that geographical proximity to relatives and a high level of support in everyday life are the norm in Black families. However, other studies also suggest that financial and emotional support is exchanged more frequently within white families than Black ones. Nevertheless, the researcher suggests that the stronger horizontal relationships in the kinship networks of Black families could represent an important relational resource that has been largely overlooked.
Overall, the study shows that kinship relationships beyond the nuclear family should be examined more closely because they represent a significant resource for many people.

Original Publication

Hünteler, B., K. Hank, D. Alburez-Gutierrez and T. Leopold: A typology of younger adults‘ nuclear and extended family relations in the United States. Journal of Marriage and Family [First published on- line: 30 June 2025].
DOI: 10.1111/jomf.70014

This article was first published in December, 2025, in the newsletter Demografische Forschung aus Erster Hand.

The Newsletter is available in German only.

"Demografische Forschung Aus Erster Hand" is a joint publication of the Max Planck Institute for demographic Research (MPIDR), the Rostocker Zentrum zur Erforschung des Demografischen Wandels (RZ), the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID), the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital and the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB).