Elsevier

Social Networks

Volume 13, Issue 3, September 1991, Pages 203-221
Social Networks

Name generators in surveys of personal networks

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8733(91)90006-FGet rights and content

Abstract

To investigate the consequences of name generators for network data, we compare characteristics of egocentric networks from Wellman's East York survey, Fischer's Northern California Communities Study, the General Social Survey, and our study of networks in 81 Nashville, Tennessee neighborhoods. Network size, age and education heterogeneity, and average tie characteristics were most strongly affected by the name generator used. Network composition, and racial and sexual heterogeneity, were more invariant across different kinds of name generators.

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    The research on which this paper is based was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (SES-8709981), awarded to the authors. Leave support was provided to the first author by the University Research Council, Vanderbilt University.

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