168 BRITISH SOCIAL ATTITUDES

would talk if they were feeling worried, stressed or down. We asked
respondents how many people they have in their lives that might fill that role:

Some people have someone in their life they can talk to if they are
feeling especially worried, stressed or down, others do not. Roughly
how many people, if any, do you have whom you could talk to if you
were feeling like that?

Seven in ten (70 per cent) indicated that they had at least three such sources of
informal support, while 40 per cent had five or more. The average number was
4.6.
An alternative way of looking at this issue is to consider networks of potential
support. One measure of this is the frequency with which people are in contact
or communication with those close to them. While such contact may not, in
itself, constitute active emotional support, it could be argued that it is a form of
extant support. Moreover, it is in the course of such everyday contact that
individuals often seek and receive support of various kinds. In recognition of
the wide variety of ways in which people keep in touch with one another, we
asked how often people were in contact with family or friends “about how
you’re feeling or just to catch up”. We asked about face-to-face contact, as well
as contact by telephone, text, e-mail or letter, or via social networking or
internet chat sites.
There is considerable variation here in the use of different forms of
communication across different groups (and especially by age), but what is
abundantly clear is that the vast majority of those interviewed tend to talk to
friends or family (face to face or by phone) at least once a week. Moreover,
over four in ten (44 per cent) talk face to face to friends or relatives every day,
slightly higher than the proportion who talk to this group on the phone each day
(37 per cent).
Age and gender are key predictive variables here, with very striking patterns
especially evident in relation to use of communications technology (phone, text,
e-mail, web). Overall, it is clear that younger people tend to have a much denser
network of regular communication with friends or family and that – across all
types of communication and among both men and women – the extent of such
contact decreases with age. So, for instance, seven in ten (69 per cent) 18–24
year olds talk face to face to friends or family every day, falling to just under
four in ten (38 per cent) of those aged 60 and above. While this tells us nothing
about the quality or content of that communication, it does suggest that potential
opportunities for emotions talk are greater for younger than older people,
simply because of frequency of contact.
Overall, then, it appears that informal relationships of support (mediated in a
variety of ways) continue to play a major role in most people’s lives. Indeed, if
one compares the proportion of those who say they have talked to close friends
or family when feeling worried, stressed or down in the last month, we find that
it remains higher than the proportion who have used any kind of formal
emotional support ever (45 compared with 40 per cent). While this is not, of
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