Social Networks, Lay Consultation and Help-Seeking Behavior.

This article considers the question: What is the apparent role of the family, its kin and friendship networks in the use of health and welfare services? Eighty-seven working-class families (consisting of two subsamples of carefully defined "utilizing" and "underutilizing" respondents) were studied in Aberdeen, Scotland over a period of roughly one and a half years. After controlling for socioeconomic status, parity, education level, proximity to services, and length of residence in the city, noteworthy differences were found between the utilizers and underutilizers on various aspects of their social networks. The underutilizers relied on an undifferentiated group of readily available relatives and friends as lay consultants before using the service, while utilizers appeared to both differentiate between relatives and friends, and be independent of both of these sources of social control. An attempt is made to trace some of the implications of these differences for the understanding of help-seeking behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]