Abstract

Over recent decades the interest for social support relationships has in-creased considerably. In the Italian context this kind of relationship - care support or monetary support - is particularly relevant, such these rela-tions often substitute the role of the welfare state. Thus, in this context it becomes particularly interesting to understand how support is structured among the population. The article focuses on monetary support, using data drawn from the Istat 1997 sample survey on "The Condition of Childhood and the Support of Social Networks". Analysis shows that the chance of receiving monetary support from a social network is not equally distributed among the population. Individuals who have higher chances of receiving are those who are able to repay such support, that is who have a higher educational level and a stable position within the la-bour market.