Social Networks, Capital, and Health Flashcards
Social network v. Social support
Social Network = structure
Social Support = function
Social Network Analysis:
- Focuses on the characteristic patterns of ties between actors in a social system, rather than on characteristics of the individuals themselves
- Study how social structures constrain members’ behavior
- Structural network characteristics explain support, access to jobs, social influences, health behaviors, and disease transmission
Sociocentric Social Network
- Focused on the whole network
- Must identify and interview all network members
- Cumbersome and expensive
Egocentric Social Network
- Focuses only on one individual ego and his/her local network of friends (alters)
- All information about network members is collected from ego
Network Characteristics to Consider
Structure: size, transitions, density, homogeneity, centrality
Characteristics of tie–Frequency of :
- face-to-face contact,
- audiovisual contact,
- organizational participation,
- reciprocity, duration, intimacy
Mechanisms linking social networks to health
- Social Support
- Social Influence/regulation
- Social Engagement and attachment
- Person-to-Person contact
- Access to resources and material goods
- Negative social interactions
- Social capital
Social Support & Health
- Instrumental - money, labor in kind
- Information
- Emotional support
- Appraisal
*also evidence for a biological pathway of social support on breast cancer outcomes:
Social interaction –> stress/cortisol excretion –> immune effect
Social Influence/Regulation & Health
- Constraining/enabling influences on health behaviors
- Norms toward help seeking and adherence
- Peer pressure
- Social comparison processes
Social Engagement/Participation & Health
- Physical/cognitive exercise
- Reinforcement of meaningful social roles
- Bonding/interpersonal attachment
Person-To-Person Contact & Health
- Restrict or promote infectious disease agents
- Accordingly, networks can be health promoting and health damaging if they serve as vectors for infection disease transmission
- Risk of social contact - think HIV patients
Access to Resources/Material Goods & Health
- Jobs/economic opportunities
- Access to health care
- Housing
- Institutional contact
Negative Social Interactions: Conflict/Strain
- Demands
- Criticism
- Perceived isolation
- Direct conflict and abuse including early childhood trauma, marital conflict
Christakis & Fowler Study, The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 years
-Three Degrees of Influence Rule:
- Obesity is spread by social networks
- Three Degrees of Influence Rule: everything we do or say tends to ripple through our network, having an impact on our friends, and their friends (3 degrees).
- If a person is obese, the likelihood that a close friend will be obese is 50%
- At 2 degrees of separation, likelihood of obesity is 20%,
- At 3 degrees, likelihood = 10%
Social Capital Definition
Examples
Social Capital = resources that are available to a group through social networks
Examples of Social Capital:
- senior citizen living alone has a neighbor who shovels his front steps after snow
- community group encourages members to get screened for cholesterol
Social Cohesion
Collective Assets
Social Cohesion = collective assets maintained by groups
(trust, neighborliness, informal social capital, collective efficacy)
Collective Efficacy:
- ability of community to organize around collective action (e.g., introducing local ordinances to band smoking in public places)
Informal Social Capital:
- ability of community adults to intervene to stop deviant behavior
