Family relations were very important – we will come back to this in a minute to see if, as appears to be the case in the west – it has a buffering effect.

The ability to borrow money was significant in the age sex adjusted and intermediate model but not in the final model. This is not surprising as ability to borrow money will depend on a series of factors – both networks (that we were using it for) but also wealth and social status, so having controlled for these factors it was no longer significant.

Marital status, Communist Party membership and membership of a religion were not important. Overall therefore, informal networks were protective but formal networks were not which fits with Roses work on social capital in the FSU.