Diversity in social support by role relations: A typology

doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2005.10.001

Social Networks

Volume 28, Issue 4, October 2006, Pages 427-441

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2005.10.001 Get rights and content

Abstract

Social support is fundamental for social integration and emotional well-being. One aspect of social support that is often the focus of attention is the size of a person's support network. However, additional complex measures of social support are necessary to capture qualitative aspects of support networks, such as the diversity in types of support available from specific types of alters. This paper presents a simple way to acquire this comprehensive information and a condensed way to represent the complexity of a person's support network so this information can easily be included in classic survey analyses. Log-linear latent class analysis is used to construct a typology of ego-centric support networks showing the types of support respondents can expect from alters with a specific role. Depending on the role relation for the five support items, this diversity can adequately be represented by distinguishing 2–4 types of respondents. For the role relation friends, we can differentiate between respondents who expect only companionship from their friends, those expecting emotional support as well as companionship, and respondents expecting no social support at all from their friends. For immediate kin, we find those with only emotional support, those with emotional and instrumental support, those with all types of support, and finally a group of respondents expecting no support at all from immediate kin. The approach presented in this article enables a more detailed measurement of the dimensions of social support contents by managing to compile the diversity by distinguishing types of respondents. Such typologies can easily be used as explanatory variables in subsequent analyses.

Introduction

Individuals are part of a society through their contacts with others. These contacts make up the personal network of an individual. Personal networks are composed of all others (alters) with whom a person (ego) has a certain relationship. An important part of this personal network consists of those alters who provide social support. The significance of a person's social support network has been shown to have an impact on a wide range of aspects in a person's life. Social support correlates to stress, emotional and psychological well-being, physical well-being, health, and the longevity of individuals (e.g. Thoits, 1982, Thoits, 1983, Thoits, 1985, d’Abbs, 1982, Sarason and Sarason, 1985, House et al., 1988, Lin and Ensel, 1989, Veiel and Baumann, 1992a, Acock and Hurlbert, 1993, Umberson et al., 1996, Antonucci et al., 1997). Research has also found social support and personal networks in general to correlate with other variables, such as personality characteristics (Sarason et al., 1983) and attitudes towards life and society (Agneessens et al., 2003).

One facet of social support that has received considerable attention is the impact of the size of a person's support network. However, social support is a multidimensional concept, and the number of alters that are potential sources of support to a person captures only part of the complexity of a person's social support network. More complex measures of social support are needed to capture more qualitative aspects of this social support network and to differentiate according to the type of support. An aspect that deserves special attention is what types of support are provided by which types of alters.

The aim of this paper is to look at the diversity in dimensions of social support available from specific role relations. Such an objective calls for a condensed manner to acquire this extensive information about a respondent's social support network and also requires a method to represent this complexity in a compact manner. Therefore, we propose an easy and short measure of social support contents that can easily be incorporated into large-scale surveys. Subsequently, we will show how to shrink the diversities in support networks into groups of respondents with similar response patterns obtained in this way. The aim is to explore whether respondents can in an adequate way be reduced into typologies based on the types of support they can expect from specific role relations. We will be using latent class analysis to reduce the complexity of social support networks in a manageable way. This typology can be used as an explanatory variable in subsequent analyses.

Section snippets

Social support and different measures of social support networks

The definition and delineation of the complex concept that is social support has been one of the major points of discussion within the support literature. The main reason for this attention is that social support generally encompasses a very broad range of facets (Veiel and Baumann, 1992b: p. 2). Nevertheless, some agreement exists about what a person's social support network is. Sarason et al. (1983) describe social support as ‘the existence or availability of people on whom we can rely,

Methodological bases for measuring role diversity in social support

For an adequate measurement of social support by roles, we must make a number of important choices. To get a global view of a person's complex social support network, one needs a picture of the different support dimensions. One way of measuring this network in surveys is by including a series of social support items in the questionnaire (cf. Vaux, 1988, van der Poel, 1993). To avoid differences in interpretation, the different social support items used to capture the multidimensionality of

Data and method

The data are based on a two-stage random sample of 623 Belgians between the ages of 23 and 75 years living in the Flemish region. The questions we use in this paper are a subset of a large-scale survey on value orientations and social integration (Waege, 1997). The survey took place in February and March 1997.

For all five support items, respondents were asked to indicate from which role relation they could expect to receive that kind of support. Respondents could indicate an unlimited number of

Models

When using LCA for building response patterns we have to predetermine the number of classes of the latent variable. Because of the exploratory nature of this analysis, we considered all possible numbers of latent classes. Based on the selection of items and roles, we fitted eighteen models in total. We used lEM (Vermunt, 1993) for model-fitting and parameter estimation. Table 2 shows the fit of these models.

Obtaining an adequate fit between model and data can sometimes be problematical in LCA,

Conclusion and discussion

In this paper, we have discussed how an actor's social support network should be seen as a complex phenomenon. One aspect that has received considerable attention when explaining other aspects of a person is the size of a person's support network. Measuring the number of alters who provide emotional support, instrumental support, information or social companionship for a person assesses only a small part of the full complexity. More complex measures of social support are necessary to capture

References (53)

A.C. Acock et al.
Social networks, marital status, and well-being
Social Networks
(1993)
H.R. Bernard et al.
Comparing four different methods for measuring personal social networks
Social Networks
(1990)
R.S. Burt
Network items and the general social survey
Social Networks
(1984)
K.E. Campbell et al.
Social resources and socioeconomic status
Social Networks
(1986)
A. Ferligoj et al.
Evaluation of social network measurement instruments
Social Networks
(1999)
C.S. Fischer
What do we mean by ‘Friends’? An inductive study
Social Networks
(1982)
C.S. Fischer et al.
National differences in network density: Israel and the United States
Social Networks
(1995)
G. Huang et al.
Network range in personal networks
Social Networks
(1990)
T. Kogovšek et al.
Estimating the reliability and validity of personal support measures: full information ML estimation with planned incomplete data
Social Networks
(2002)
G. Lai
Social support networks in urban Shanghai
Social Networks
(2001)

M. Van Der Gaag et al.

The resources generator: social capital quantification with concrete items

Social Networks

(2005)

M.G.M. van der Poel

Delineating personal support networks

Social Networks

(1993)

F. Agneessens et al.

Over het verband tussen sociale relaties en attitudes, waarden en normen

A. Agresti

Categorical Data Analysis

(1990)

G.A. Allan

A Sociology of Friendship and Kinship

(1979)

T.C. Antonucci et al.

Social relations and depressive symptomatology in a sample of community-dwelling French older Adults

Psychology and Aging

(1997)

E. Bott

Family and Social Networks: Roles, Norms, and External Relationships in Ordinary Urban Families

(1971)

R.S. Burt

Distinguishing relational contents

R.S. Burt

Range

d’Abbs, P., 1982. Social Support Networks: A Critical Review of Models and Findings. Institute of Family Studies...

C.S. Fischer

To Dwell Among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City

(1982)

C.S. Fischer

Centennial essay: The subcultural theory of urbanism: a 20th-year assessment

American Journal of Sociology

(1995)

L.C. Freeman et al.

An international comparative study of interpersonal behavior and role relationships

L’Année Sociologique

(1997)

L.A. Goodman

Exploratory latent structure analysis using both identifiable and unidentifiable models

Biometrika

(1974)

J.A. Hagenaars

Categorical Longitudinal Data: Log-linear Panel, Trend, and Cohort Analysis

(1990)

Cited by (117)

Towards a general method to classify personal network structures
2024, Social Networks
In this study, we present a method to uncover the fundamental dimensions of structural variability in Personal Networks (PNs) and develop a classification solely based on these structural properties. We address the limitations of previous literature and lay the foundation for a rigorous methodology to construct a Structural Typology of PNs. We test our method with a dataset of nearly 8,000 PNs belonging to high school students. We find that the structural variability of these PNs can be described in terms of six basic dimensions encompassing community and cohesive subgroup structure, as well as levels of cohesion, hierarchy, and centralization. Our method allows us to categorize these PNs into eight types and to interpret them structurally. We assess the robustness and generality of our methodology by comparing with previous results on structural typologies. To encourage its adoption, its improvement by others, and to support future research, we provide a publicly available Python class, enabling researchers to utilize our method and test the universality of our results.
Network effects on physical activity through interpersonal vs. masspersonal communication with the core and acquaintance networks
2023, Computers in Human Behavior
This study extended the conceptual model of network influence on health behavior by establishing the correspondence between types of social networks (i.e., core and acquaintance networks) and psychosocial processes (i.e., social control and awareness of healthy behaviors) that facilitate increased physical activity among college students. Using an online survey, we identified college students' types of social networks based on their offline and social media activities. Data about psychosocial processes and their physical activity were also collected. Communication with one's core and acquaintance network was related to social control from and awareness of healthy behaviors of both the core and acquaintance network. Nevertheless, only awareness of healthy behaviors from the core network was related to increased physical activity.
Dimensions of social networks: A taxonomy and operationalization
2022, Social Networks
What are the basic types of social network ties captured by name generators? While there have been several classifications proposed, and a large proliferation of name generators capturing various tie content has emerged, there is no clear way to map a given name generator to a particular tie type. Building on previous research, this paper proposes a framework for doing so in a principled way based on two studies. Study 1 is a dimension reduction of 24 common name generators. We find two dimensions (Valence and Social Distance), three positive tie types (Admiration, Closeness, Socialize), and three negative tie types (Active Conflict, Passive Conflict, Contempt) and use Youden's J statistic as a metric to identify the name generator that best maximizes sensitivity and specificity for detecting our tie types. We find that the most common name generators used by researchers fall within just one tie type (Closeness). Study 2 models these six tie types as predictors and outcomes of important sociological variables and finds that each tie type is associated with distinct patterns of emotions, social support, social status, and social roles. Our taxonomy makes a contribution to network theory as well as study design. In particular, it advances our understanding of the nature of signed ties. We find that negative ties are both bipolar and orthogonal, and distinguish between two types of ambivalence. Moreover, the findings contribute to the further refinement and elaboration of a comprehensive taxonomy of network ties.
Social networks of older patients with advanced cancer: Potential contributions of an integrated mixed methods network analysis
2021, Journal of Geriatric Oncology
Citation Excerpt :
Frequency of contact or length of relationship are not necessarily associated with influence on understanding and decision-making [14]. While close relatives might be expected to provide support [15] they might be sources of tension and hinder communication and self-management of the disease [16], leading older patients to rely primarily on weaker social connections and anonymous online networks [17]. Those weaker connections may also be important, for example, by raising issues that close relatives are reluctant to discuss.
Building a structural typology of personal networks: Individual differences in the cohesion of interpersonal environment
2021, Social Networks
The development of typologies is an efficient strategy in the descriptive study of individual differences in the interpersonal environment of relationships. In this paper, we developed a classification of personal networks using structural indicators with a representative sample (n = 403) in a medium-sized city of the metropolitan environment of Seville, in the south of Spain. The typology was based on the analysis of conglomerates with three criteria variables: centralization, number of cliques, and the number of components. The results allowed the identification of four types of personal networks: dense, intermediate, clustered, and fragmented networks. The classification was validated with descriptive data, linear discriminant analysis, and visual-classification procedure. The structural cohesion and the formation of cohesive sub-groups were two key dimensions to describe the variability of the personal networks in the sample.
Disentangling the effects of efficacy-facilitating informational support on health resilience in online health communities based on phrase-level text analysis
2020, Information and Management
This study examines the different types of supportive messages posted on a forum at online Healthcare communities (OHCs), which facilitate user self-efficacy and response-efficacy and an issue of how such informational messages encourage users to enhance their health resilience via goal-setting for health improvement. We theorize that self-efficacy-oriented messages affect helpfulness, focusing on the efficiency of the implementation, while response-efficacy-oriented messages influence the relationships among helpfulness, goal-settings, and health resilience based on the outcome expectancy. Using a computer assisted approach which allows for the directed content analysis, we test a conceptual model with the text-data collected from an OHC.

View all citing articles on Scopus

^☆: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the International Conference on Methodology and Statistics, Preddvor, Slovenia, 24–27 September 2000, Preddvor. The project was supported by the Flemish government, project PBO/98/60-59/62. We are very grateful for the helpful comments and advice from two anonymous reviewers.

View full text

Diversity in social support by role relations: A typology☆

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Social support and different measures of social support networks

Methodological bases for measuring role diversity in social support

Data and method

Models

Conclusion and discussion

Social Networks

Social Networks

Social Networks

Social Networks

Social Networks

Social Networks

Social Networks

Social Networks

Social Networks

Social Networks

Social Networks

Social Networks

Over het verband tussen sociale relaties en attitudes, waarden en normen

Categorical Data Analysis

A Sociology of Friendship and Kinship

Social relations and depressive symptomatology in a sample of community-dwelling French older Adults

Psychology and Aging

Family and Social Networks: Roles, Norms, and External Relationships in Ordinary Urban Families

Distinguishing relational contents

Range

To Dwell Among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City

Centennial essay: The subcultural theory of urbanism: a 20th-year assessment

American Journal of Sociology

An international comparative study of interpersonal behavior and role relationships

L’Année Sociologique

Exploratory latent structure analysis using both identifiable and unidentifiable models

Biometrika

Categorical Longitudinal Data: Log-linear Panel, Trend, and Cohort Analysis