Life course transitions and changes in network ties among younger and older adults.

Several theories of the life course highlight the importance of social connections and ties for coping with transitions that occur at different ages. Individuals rely on family, friends, and colleagues to adapt to these transitions which may in turn change the composition of their networks. Yet, little is known about the association between life cycle transitions and changes in network characteristics.

How New is "New"? Who Gets Added in a Panel Study of Personal Networks?

Using longitudinal data from UCNets, we examined newly-listed alters and distinguished between ties who were recently met (typically coworkers and acquaintances) and who were previously known to ego (typically extended kin and friends). Half of the newly-listed ties among the younger respondents were truly new, whereas two-thirds among the older respondents were awakened. In both groups, however, most alters were previously listed.

Causal Relationships between Personal Networks and Health: A Comparison of Three Modeling Strategies.

Prior research documents associations between personal network characteristics and health, but establishing causation has been a long-standing research priority. To evaluate approaches to causal inference in egocentric network data, this article uses three waves from the University of California Berkeley Social Networks Study (N = 1,159) to investigate connections between nine network variables and two global health outcomes. We compare three modeling strategies: cross-sectional ordinary least squares regression, regression with lagged dependent variables (LDVs), and hybrid fixed and random effects models.

Who is Dropped and Why? Methodological and Substantive Accounts for Network Loss.

High rates of egocentric network turnover are frequently observed but not well explained. About 1,000 respondents to the UCNets survey named an average of 10 names in each of two waves a year apart. Consistent with prior studies, respondents in wave 2 failed to relist about half of the names they provided in wave 1.

Mode and Interviewer Effects in Egocentric Network Research.

Surveys of egocentric networks are especially vulnerable to methods effects. This study combines a true experiment-random assignment of respondents to receive essentially identical questions from either an in-person interviewer or an online survey--with audio recordings of the in-person interviews. We asked over 850 respondents from a general population several different name-eliciting questions.