Curved Exponential Family Models for Social Networks

Curved exponential family models are a useful generalization of exponential random graph models (ERGMs). In particular, models involving the alternating k-star, alternating k-triangle, and alternating k-twopath statistics of Snijders et al (2006) may be viewed as curved exponential family models. This article unifies recent material in the literature regarding curved exponential family models for networks in general and models involving these alternating statistics in particular. It also discusses the intuition behind rewriting the three alternating statistics in terms of the degree distribution and the recently introduced shared partner distributions. This intuition suggests a redefinition of the alternating k-star statistic. Finally, this article demonstrates the use of the statnet package in R for fitting models of this sort, comparing new results on an oft-studied network dataset with results found in the literature.     

Logit Models for Affiliation Networks

Once confined to networks in which dyads could be reasonably assumed to be independent, the statistical analysis of network data has blossomed in recent years. New modeling and estimation strategies have made it possible to propose and evaluate very complex structures of dependency between and among ties in social networks. These advances have focused exclusively on one-mode networks—that is, networks of direct ties between actors. We generalize these models to affiliation networks, networks in which actors are tied to each other only indirectly through belonging to some group or event. We formulate models that allow us to study the (log) odds of an actor's belonging to an event (or an event including an actor) as a function of properties of the two-mode network of actors' memberships in events. We also provide illustrative analysis of some classic data sets on affiliation networks.     

The Analysis of Duocentric Social Networks: A Primer

Marriages and other intimate partnerships are facilitated or constrained by the social networks within which they are embedded. To date, methods used to assess the social networks of couples have been limited to global ratings of social network characteristics or network data collected from each partner separately. In the current article, the authors offer new tools for expanding on the existing literature by describing methods of collecting and analyzing duocentric social networks, that is, the combined social networks of couples. They provide an overview of the key considerations for measuring duocentric networks, such as how and why to combine separate network interviews with partners into one shared duocentric network, the number of network members to assess, and the implications of different network operationalizations. They illustrate these considerations with analyses of social network data collected from 57 low‐income married couples, presenting visualizations and quantitative measures of network composition and structure.     

Social Movements and Social Networks: Introduction

In this Introduction we provide a brief literature review of work on social networks and social movements, a brief introduction to certain key concepts and debates in social network analysis, and a brief introduction to the articles which follow in the special issue.     

Social Group Work Models

Life-transition group counseling is described as a highly effective crisis intervention modality that is becoming an important part of social work practice. Students can learn this method in the first year Human Behavior and the Social Environment course through emphasis on developmental and accidental transition points in the life cycle. Students also are given practical guidelines for initiating intervention groups in different fieldwork settings, based on crisis intervention theory and on currently evolving practice models. Students are encouraged to write term papers about certain life transitions as a way of acquiring the necessary knowledge for this new social work method.     

大学生群体移动社交网络正能量传播研究

随着信息技术的发展,移动社交网络已经成为大学生主要的交流阵地,它对大学生群体的生活方式产生了深远的影响。在移动社交网络环境下,大学生群体社交呈现圈子化特征,社会情绪处于纠结状态,社交心理上技术依赖取代了情感依赖,更容易形成意识形态的链条。在移动社交网络平台下,要从媒介技术层面、文化心理层面、人际交往层面和意识形态层面加强对大学生正能量的传播。     

For a Social Psychology of Prayer

Prayer is one of the most common religious activities practiced by Americans. In this review, I make the argument that prayer is a social psychological phenomenon that scholars should treat as such. After a discussion of the use of prayer as a proxy for overall religiosity and a brief excursus on current typologies of prayer, I provide three main arguments for the claim that prayer is a social psychological phenomenon. First, I review evidence that prayer is a legitimate social interaction with “imagined others” that shares many characteristics with and involves the same cognitive and interactional processes as human‐human interactions. Second, I review evidence that shows that individuals’ social positions influence the frequency of prayer. Third, I review evidence that prayer influences social action through psychological and interactional processes.     

Social Networks and Extraparliamentary Politics

This article reviews the main literature dealing with the relationship between social networks and various forms of extraparliamentary politics. The purpose of the article is to introduce this exciting field of research in an accessible manner.     

Covariance Models For Latent Structure In Longitudinal Data

We present several approaches to modeling latent structure in longitudinal studies when the covariance itself is the primary focus of the analysis. This is a departure from much of the work on longitudinal data analysis, in which attention is focused solely on the cross-sectional mean and the influence of covariates on the mean. Such analyses are particularly important in policy-related studies, in which the heterogeneity of the population is of interest. We describe several traditional approaches to this modeling and introduce a flexible, parsimonious class of covariance models appropriate to such analyses. This class, while rooted in the tradition of mixed effects and random coefficient models, merges several disparate modeling philosophies into what we view as a hybrid approach to longitudinal data modeling. We discuss the implications of this approach and its alternatives especially on model interpretation. We compare several implementations of this class to more commonly employed mixed effects models to describe the strengths and limitations of each. These alternatives are compared in an application to long-term trends in wage inequality for young workers. The findings provide additional guidance for the model formulation process in both statistical and substantive senses.     

Log-Multiplicative Association Models As Latent Variable Models For Nominal and/or Ordinal Data

Associations between multiple discrete measures are often due to collapsing over other variables. When the variables collapsed over are unobserved and continuous, log-multiplicative association models, including log-linear models with linear-by-linear interactions for ordinal categorical data and extensions of Goodman's (1979, 1985) RC(M) association model for multiple nominal and/or ordinal categorical variables, can be used to study the relationship between the observed discrete variables and the unobserved continuous ones, and to study the unobserved variables. The derivation and use of log-multiplicative association models as latent variable models for discrete variables are presented in this paper. The models are based on graphical models for discrete and continuous variables where the variables follow a conditional Gaussian distribution. The models have many desirable properties, including having schematic or graphical representations of the system of observed and unobserved variables, the log-multiplicative models can be read from the graphs, and estimates of the means, variances, and covariances of the latent variables given values on the observed variables are a function of the log-multiplicative model parameters. To illustrate some of the advantageous aspects of these models, two examples are presented. In one example, responses to items from the General Social Survey (Davis and Smith 1996) are modeled, and in the other example, panel data from two groups (Coleman 1964) are analyzed.     

社会网络与女性职业性别隔离

社会学理论认为,人们的社会网络具有性别偏好,这导致了男女求职结果的性别分化,并部分地解释了职业的性别隔离问题。本文根据2009年8大城市调查数据,分析了我国城市女性的职业性别隔离在何等程度上受社会网络的影响。分析结果表明:8大城市在职者的社会网络具有性别同质化倾向,女性和男性更多地与同性亲朋交往;使用强关系成功求职的女性往往进入性别隔离的女性职业;使用弱关系成功求职的女性能摆脱职业性别隔离趋向,进入中性职业或男性职业。     

Social Networks and Social Settings: Developing a Coevolutionary View

One way to think about social context is as a sample of alters. To understand individual action, therefore, it matters greatly where these alters may be coming from, and how they are connected. According to one vision, connections among alters induce local dependencies—emergent rules of social interaction that generate endogenously the observed network structure of social settings. Social selection is the decision of interest in this perspective. According to a second vision, social settings are collections of social foci—physical or symbolic locales where actors meet. Because alters are more likely to be drawn from focused sets, shared social foci are frequently considered as the main generators of network ties, and hence of setting structure. Affiliation to social foci is the decision of central interest in this second view. In this paper we show how stochastic actor–oriented models (SAOMs) originally derived for studying the dynamics of multiple networks may be adopted to represent and examine these interconnected systems of decisions (selection and affiliation) within a unified analytical framework. We illustrate the empirical value of the model in the context of a longitudinal sample of adolescent participating in the Glasgow Teenage Friends and Lifestyle Study. Social selection decisions are examined in the context of networks of friendship relations. The analysis treats musical genres as the main social foci of interest.     

The Role of Social Networks in Immigrant Women’s Political Incorporation

This article examines how immigrant women’s social networks affect their propensity to vote and to participate in unconventional political activities, as well as their knowledge of politics and government services and programs. Our primary source of data is a telephone survey of women living in Canada’s two largest metropolitan areas. Our findings show that contrary to the social capital literature, bonding ties do not exert strong negative effects on political incorporation, while bridging ties are not as helpful as hypothesized. What is important for immigrant women are the resources that are embedded in their social networks.     

Social Support Networks of Single Young Mothers

This study explored the nature of social support networks of young, unmarried mothers. Interviews were conducted with 18 young, female African American residents at an agency for homeless, unmarried mothers in a Midwest city. Quantitative results indicated the mean number of people in the participants’ networks was 19; analysis found a moderately strong correlation between the size of the support network and perceived level of support. Themes that emerged from coding the transcribed, qualitative interviews included the tension between needing support and wanting independence, the motivation generated for young mothers through relationship with their own children, the mixed nature of support from the young mothers’ families, the affect of presence or absence of support from the child’s father, the role of the young mother’s own mother in her support system, the lack of supportive relationships among young mothers in the program, and impressions the young mothers had of formal agency services. The authors discuss implications for case management and agencies working with teen mothers.     

Social Networks of Old People in India

Summary

This article presents a comparative analysis of the available research on the social networks of older persons in India. Most of this research has been done in North Indian cities. The research foci of the available studies include network size, core networks and beyond, life course changes in networks, impacts of residency in old-age homes, gender differences, and joint and nuclear family residence. This research is discussed in terms of its policy implications. Because the research demonstrates that social networks are important for the welfare of older Indians, one can conclude that social policy that encourages the maintenance of robust networks throughout the life course may be worth pursuing. One aspect of policy is discussed. The analysis of the relationship between social network and gender suggests that current policies that can be seen as supporting gender inequality in terms of property may have a negative impact on the networks of older women.     

社会关系、初职获得方式与职业流动

关系使用者是一个高度异质性的群体,区分不同类型的关系使用者对理解社会关系的作用机制及其对劳动力市场结果变量的效应非常重要。根据初职获得的方式,本研究将劳动者分成三个群体,即通过正式渠道(不使用关系)、正式渠道与关系相结合(正式+关系)以及完全通过关系获得初职的群体。使用2009年八城市社会网络与职业经历问卷调查(JSNET2009)数据,本文探讨了这三个劳动者群体的特征以及他们在职业流动和收入分层模式方面的差异。研究发现,使用正式+关系方式获得初职的劳动者群体和完全通过关系获得初职的劳动者群体的特征及其劳动力市场经历是截然不同的。首先,前者是高社会经济地位的群体,他们有较高的人力资本以及质量最高的社会网络资本;而后者是低社会经济地位的群体,他们自身的人力资本最低,而且社会网络资本的质量也是最差的。其次,后者比前者更可能换工作(离开初职)。第三,两个群体收入获得的决定因素方面也体现出显著的差异。     

A Mixed‐Methods Social Networks Study Design for Research on Transnational Families

This paper advocates the adoption of a mixed‐methods research design to describe and analyze ego‐centered social networks in transnational family research. Drawing on the experience of the “Social Networks Influences on Family Formation” project (2004–2005; see Bernardi, Keim, & von der Lippe, 2007a, 2007b ), I show how the combined use of network generators and semistructured interviews (N = 116) produces unique data on family configurations and their impact on life course choices. A mixed‐methods network approach presents specific advantages for research on children in transnational families. On one hand, quantitative analyses are crucial for reconstructing and measuring the potential and actual relational support available to children in a context where kin interactions may be hindered by temporary and prolonged periods of separation. On the other hand, qualitative analyses can address strategies and practices employed by families to maintain relationships across international borders and geographic distance, as well as the implications of those strategies for children's well‐being.     

Social Protection in the ‘Real World’: Issues,Models and Challenges

Social protection has evolved rapidly both conceptually and in practice, and is now a key policy issue in humanitarian and development debates. However, debates have sometimes been misled by approaches that pay inadequate attention to context‐specific factors, do not fully consider the sequence of interventions, and are too instrument‐centred. This article presents a conceptual framework to tailor social‐protection policy and implementation more closely to country contexts. Four stylised models of social protection are identified, corresponding to scenarios where social‐protection systems are absent, where elements of such systems exist, and where systems are emerging or have been consolidated. Each model is shown to lead to different challenges, implications and areas for further research.