Social factors related to the use and non-use of fictive kin terms

Abstract

Fictive kinship is a relationship characterized by use of kin terms in addressing persons who are not genealogical relatives. The objective of this study was to clarify the discrepancy between a theoretical perspective of fictive kinship as a form of substitutive kinship in a complex, urban society, and research which indicated that fictive kinship may be characteristic of a more stable society.

The sample selected for research consisted of 115 wives randomly selected from a population comprising the faculty employed at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. When generalized to an upper-middle-class, white, Protestant population, then was no substantiation for either the theoretical perspective of substitutive kinship in a complex, urban milieu, or the previous findings which suggested that fictive kin relationships were characteristic of a more stable environment. However, respondents from small families of orientation used fictive kin terms significantly more than other respondents. Intergenerational patterns of usage were also apparent. Descriptive data indicated the terms were most often used during childhood and were generally initiated by parents for their personal friends. The relationship involved appears to be one between two non-users, while a third party is encouraged to use the fictive terminology as validation of that relationship. Interpretation of the data gives rise to the suggestion that fictive kinship may be a misnomer, because the terms seem indicative of primary group associations rather than kin ties.