Links between social network closure and child well-being: the organizing role of friendship context.
Third grade children (N = 404) and their mothers completed questionnaires and participated in interviews designed to identify children's friendships across multiple contexts, determine levels of social network closure for these friendships, and assess child well-being. Cluster analyses revealed distinct patterns in the contexts in which children's friendships were maintained. Closure was highest for children whose friendship clusters heavily represented relatives as friends and lowest when friends were from schools and the broader community. Intermediate levels of closure were observed for the clusters of neighborhood friends and friends from church and school. Both friendship cluster and, to some extent, ethnicity moderated associations between closure and indicators of well-being.
Fletcher
Anne C
AC
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC 27402-6170, USA. acfletch@uncg.edu
Hunter
Andrea G
AG
Eanes
Angella Y
AY
D002648:Child; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012933:Social Identification; D012944:Social Support; D012963:Sociometric Techniques; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires