Persistence of close personal ties over a 12-year period
Section snippets
Factors affecting tie persistence and decay
Network analysis has developed a number of elegant ways for envisioning or analyzing social networks conceived as static snapshots (most importantly, as binary matrices). Much less is known about the more prosaic social processes whereby ties are formed and broken. In particular, little is known about the retention of social network ties over substantial portions of the lifecourse. But a number of studies have suggested that tie persistence is likely to be affected by individual characteristics
The data set
We analyze data from the first and second major waves of Benjamin Zablocki's Urban Commune Project. This data set contains a wealth of information about the members of 60 different intentional communities. Ten communes (defined as having five or more adult members, either not all of the same sex or with at least one child, and with a collective identity known to others) were selected from the largest SMSAs in six of the census bureau's eight major areas in 1974 (for more information, see
Methods
As we shall see below, the reports to our question on frequency of contact appear to be more or less Poisson-distributed. While the underlying events on which the participants report (number of contacts) may have a different distribution, transforming the observed variables to a linear scale (by giving each response category its mean value) produced abnormal clusterings. Further, it seems likely that the actual response process is better approximated by a Poisson process (in which persons
Distribution and agreement of contact reports
We begin by analyzing reports as to frequency of contact at time 2, because we believe that the nature of the item is relatively unambiguous, and the measurement instrument relatively precise, affording us the best opportunity to test our hypotheses. Fig. 1 displays the marginal results regarding frequency of contact in terms of the number of reported dyads at any level of frequency of contact; each person contributes more than one observation. As we can see, the overall rate of contact is
Dyadic effects
Recall that the survey instrument asked each respondent to indicate for each other member whether the respondent considered alter a “friend” or a “close friend”. Here we will analyze the latter, though results using the former are similar though weaker in magnitude (analyses available upon request). It is important to note that while all members were in contact at time 1, and hence our time 2 measures were indeed measures of persistence, not all members were friends with each other at time 1,
Conclusion
Let us summarize our main conclusions. We have examined the persistence of long-term relationships among persons who formed themselves into communities. First of all, contrary to our expectations, we did not find these relationships to be eroded by family formation. Even cross-sex friendships seemed to survive ex-members getting married and having children.
Second, distance matters. It not only decreases the regularity of contact, it makes people less likely to consider themselves close friends.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, SES-99-06452. An earlier version was presented at the Working Group on Formation and Decay of Economic Networks of the Russell Sage Foundation; we would like to thank the participants for comments. We are indebted to reviewers and the editors for their comments and criticism.
References (44)
Decay functions
Social Networks
(2000)Bridge decay
Social Networks
(2002)- et al.
Detecting measurement bias in respondent reports of personal networks
Social Networks
(2002) Predictability of social connections over time
Social Networks
(1979/1980)Predicting with networks: nonparametric multiple regression analysis of dyadic data
Social Networks
(1988)- et al.
On the stability of network relations under stress
Social Networks
(1997) Personal network integration: transitivity and homophily in strong-tie relations
Social Networks
(2000)Group composition and network structure in school classes: a multilevel application of the p* model
Social Networks
(2003)- et al.
The stability of core and peripheral networks over time
Social Networks
(1997) - et al.
On the changing structure of social networks in urban China
Social Networks
(1997)
Once a friend, always a friend? effects of homophily on women's support networks across a decade
Social Networks
A decade of network change: turnover, persistence and stability in personal communities
Social Networks
Fixed-effects negative binomial regression models
Sociological Methodology
Age and religiosity: evidence from a three-wave panel analysis
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
The analysis of social interaction data: a nonparametric technique
Sociological Methods and Research
Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods
Multilevel models: methods and substance
Annual Review of Sociology
Social Pressures in Informal Groups
To Dwell Among Friends
Authentic community: the role of place in modern life
America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone
Structural effects on dyadic change
Social Forces
Cited by (60)
Theorizing the concept of social tie using frames
2024, Social NetworksNeighborhood conditions and social network turnover among older adults
2023, Social NetworksMultiple types of friends and life stage differences in friendship
2022, Social NetworksCitation Excerpt :Or, even though the highly-dense friends networks have more conflictual ties than expected (Sarazin, 2021), a cohesive friend network fosters interactions between friends in a conflict situation, which prevents them from losing a friendship or provides a chance to be reunited (Bellotti, 2008). Thus, ties in dense networks are likely to maintain long-term relationships (Lubbers et al., 2010; Martin and Yeung, 2006). Individuals’ gender, race-ethnicity, and economic status also affect friendship patterns.
A dyadic analysis of social network stability before and after incarceration
2022, Journal of Criminal Justice