Social networks and service use among representative cases of psychosis in South London

1997 ◽  
Vol 171 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Becker ◽  
Graham Thornicroft ◽  
Morven Leese ◽  
Paul McCrone ◽  
Sonia Johnson ◽  
...  

BackgroundLarge social networks in patients with severe mental illness have been reported to be associated with a low rate of hospitalisation. We aim to determine whether social network size is related to the likelihood of hospitalisation and the amount of service use.MethodAs part of a prospective controlled study, baseline interview data for a random sample of one-year prevalent cases with non-organic psychosis were analysed with respect to social network characteristics and service use during a six-month period.ResultsThe likelihood of hospitalisation decreased with an increase in network size, while the number of services used by patients grew as the social network size increased.ConclusionsWhile larger social networks may be associated with a lower likelihood of hospitalisation, they may also be related to wider use of non-hospital services.

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 990-1011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott R. Beach ◽  
Richard Schulz ◽  
Rodlescia Sneed

Social support and social networks are important correlates of elder mistreatment. This study tests hypothesized associations between perceived social support, social network size, and financial exploitation (FE). A population-based survey of 903 older adults (60+) in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) found that lower perceived social support and larger social networks were simultaneously associated with higher risk for FE since age 60, controlling for known risk factors. The same associations were found for FE in the last 6 months. Older adults with larger social networks combined with lower perceived social support were most likely to report FE. When it comes to the role of social relationships and risk for FE, “more may not always be better.” Encouragement to widen the social network by “making new friends” should be stressed less than making sure these new network members will truly be supportive of the older adult.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-68
Author(s):  
Sivaganesan D

The users largely contributing towards product adoption or information utilization in social networks are identified by the process of influence maximization. The exponential growth in social networks imposes several challenges in the analyses of these networks. Important has been given to modeling structural properties while the relationship between users and their social behavior has being ignored in the existing literature. With respect to the social behavior, the influence maximization task has been parallelized in this paper. In order to maximize the influence in social networks, an interest based algorithm with parallel social action has been proposed. This is algorithm enables identifying influential users in social network. The interactive behavior of the user is weighted dynamically as social actions along with the interests of the users. These two semantic metrics are used in the proposed algorithm. An optimal influential nodes set is computed by implementing the machines with CPU architecture with perfect parallelism through community structure. This helps in reducing the execution time and overcoming the real-word social network size challenges. When compared to the existing schemes, the proposed algorithm offers improved efficiency in the calculation speed on real world networks.


Author(s):  
W. Schmitz ◽  
S. Mauritz ◽  
M. Wagner

Abstract Background Oldest-old people are expected to be particularly likely to experience loneliness due to the loss of their intimate partner or of same-aged social network members. It is assumed that individuals in different living arrangements maintain different kinds of social networks because they adjust their networks to their specific needs. However, not much is known about the variation in the social networks of the oldest-old depending on their living arrangements and how this variation is related to loneliness. This is the first study that seeks to fill this research gap by examining how the composition and the size of a social network varies among the oldest-old depending on their living arrangements with a partner (coresidential partnership, living apart together (LAT) partnership, no partnership), and how this variation contributes to explain loneliness among the oldest-old. Methods We used cross-sectional data from the representative survey NRW80+ (Quality of Life and Well-Being of the Very Old in North-Rhine Westphalia). The sample of analysis used in this study consists of 1860 respondents from the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia aged 80 years and older. Associations between social network characteristics and living arrangements were tested using χ2-tests and one-way ANOVA. Ordered logit models were used to explain loneliness. Results Respondents in a coresidential partnership maintained larger social networks than those in an LAT partnership and those with no intimate partner. Furthermore, the respondents with no partner maintained more diverse social networks. Compared to those in the other living arrangements, the respondents in an LAT partnership maintained the smallest and least diverse social networks. Being in a coresidential partnership and the social network size were found to be negatively associated with loneliness. Conclusion First, the results indicate that respondents who do not have a partner adjusted their social networks to meet their needs in the absence of this relationship. Second, we conclude that being in a coresidential partnership and having a large social network protects the oldest-old against loneliness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312098525
Author(s):  
Balazs Kovacs ◽  
Nicholas Caplan ◽  
Samuel Grob ◽  
Marissa King

We utilize longitudinal social network data collected pre–COVID-19 in June 2019 and compare them with data collected in the midst of COVID in June 2020. We find significant decreases in network density and global network size following a period of profound social isolation. While there is an overall increase in loneliness during this era, certain social network characteristics of individuals are associated with smaller increases in loneliness. Specifically, we find that people with fewer than five “very close” relationships report increases in loneliness. We further find that face-to-face interactions, as well as the duration and frequency of interactions with very close ties, are associated with smaller increases in loneliness during the pandemic. We also report on factors that do not moderate the effect of social isolation on perceived loneliness, such as gender, age, or overall social network size.


Children ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Wawrzynski ◽  
Melissa A. Alderfer ◽  
Whitney Kvistad ◽  
Lauri Linder ◽  
Maija Reblin ◽  
...  

Siblings of children with cancer need support to ameliorate the challenges they encounter; however, little is known about what types and sources of support exist for siblings. This study addresses this gap in our understanding of the social networks and sources of support for adolescents with a brother or sister who has cancer. Additionally, we describe how the support siblings receive addresses what they feel are the hardest aspects of being a sibling of a child with cancer. During semi-structured interviews, siblings (ages 12–17) constructed ecomaps describing their support networks. Data were coded for support type (emotional, instrumental, informational, validation, companionship) and support provider (e.g., mother, teacher, friend). Network characteristics and patterns of support were explored. Support network size ranged from 3 to 10 individuals (M = 6 ± 1.9); siblings most frequently reported mothers as sources of support (n = 22, 91.7%), followed by fathers (n = 19, 79.2%), close friends (n = 19, 79.2%) and siblings (with or without cancer) (n = 17, 70.8%). Friends and brothers or sisters most often provided validation and companionship while instrumental and informational supports came from parents. This study provides foundational knowledge about siblings’ support networks, which can be utilized to design interventions that improve support for siblings of children with cancer.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiyin Cao ◽  
Edward Bishop Smith

Previous research has demonstrated that the size and reach of people’s social networks tend to be positively related to their social status. Although several explanations help to account for this relationship—for example, higher-status people may be part of multiple social circles and therefore have more social contacts with whom to affiliate—we present a novel argument involving people’s beliefs about the relationship between status and quality, what we call status-quality coupling. Across seven separate studies, we demonstrate that the positive association between social status and network-broadening behavior (as well as social network size) is contingent on the extent to which people believe that status is a reliable indicator of quality. Across each of our studies, high- and low-status people who viewed status and quality as tightly coupled differed in their network-broadening behaviors, as well as in the size of their reported social networks. The effect was largely driven by the perceived self-value and perceived receptivity of the networking target. Such differences were significantly weaker or nonexistent among equivalently high- and low-status people who viewed status as an unreliable indicator of quality. Because the majority of participants—both high- and low-status—exhibited beliefs in status-quality coupling, we conclude that such a belief marks an important and previously unaccounted-for driver of the relationship between status, network-broadening behaviors, and social networks. Implications for research on social capital, advice seeking, and inequality are highlighted in the discussion section.


Autism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 1138-1151
Author(s):  
Jiedi Lei ◽  
Chris Ashwin ◽  
Mark Brosnan ◽  
Ailsa Russell

Transitioning to university can be anxiety-provoking for all students. The relationship between social anxiety, autistic traits and students’ social network structure, and perceived support is poorly understood. This study used a group-matched design where autistic students ( n = 28) and typically developing students ( n = 28) were matched on sex, age (17–19 years), ethnicity, pre-university academic performance and degree subject at university. Autistic students reported greater transition to university worries, and a smaller social network size compared to typically developing students, though perceived similar levels of support from their social networks. Autistic and typically developing students showed differential patterns of association with both autistic traits and social anxiety. Broader clinical and practical implications of findings are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Miguel Martín Cárdaba ◽  
Rafael Carrasco Polaino ◽  
Ubaldo Cuesta Cambra

The popularization of Internet and the rise of social networks have offered an unbeatable opportunity for anti-vaccines, especially active communicators, to spread their message more effectively causing a significant impact on public opinion. A great amount of research has been carried out to understand the behavior that anti-vaccine communities show on social networks. However, it seems equally relevant to study the behavior that communities and communicators “pro vaccines” perform in these networks. Therefore, the objective of this research has been to study how members of the Spanish Association of Health Journalist (ANIS) communicate and use the social network Twitter. More specifically, the different interactions made by ANIS partners were analyzed through the so-called “centrality measures of social network analysis” (SNA), to check the configuration of the user network and detect those most relevant by their indexes of centrality, intermediation or mentions received. The research monitored 142 twitter accounts for one year analyzing 254 twits and their 2.671 interactions. The research concluded that the network of ANIS partners on Twitter regarding vaccines has little cohesion and has several components not connected to each other, in addition to the fact that there are users outside the association that show greater relevance than the partners themselves. We also concluded that there are an important lack of planning and direction in the communication strategy of ANIS on Twitter, which limits the dissemination of important content.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connor Malcolm ◽  
Tamsin Saxton ◽  
Kris McCarty ◽  
Sam G. B. Roberts ◽  
Thomas Victor Pollet

Friendship networks are instrumental to a whole range of outcomes including career success and personal wellbeing, and as such it is important to ask how social networks are shaped by personality variables. However, previous research examining how extraversion is associated with social network size and closeness to social network members has produced inconsistent findings. Here, we assessed how extraversion (HEXACO model) was associated with three key features of advice networks (size, density, and emotional closeness to network members) in a sample of 199 participants (17 - 75 years, M = 25, SD = 11; 146 women). We found that higher levels of extraversion (and its four facets: social self-esteem, social boldness, sociability, and liveliness) corresponded to a significantly larger advice network, but not greater network density, or greater emotional closeness to network members. The social manifestation of extraversion here seems to be operationalised in terms of a greater number of interactive advice partners, but no increased probability of ensuring that contacts are connected to each other, or of developing emotionally deep relationships with contacts.


2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (26_suppl) ◽  
pp. 115-115
Author(s):  
Candyce H. Kroenke ◽  
Yvonne Michael ◽  
Xiao-Ou Shu ◽  
Elizabeth Poole ◽  
Marilyn L. Kwan ◽  
...  

115 Background: Larger social networks have been associated with better breast cancer survival. To investigate potential mediators, we evaluated associations of social network size and diversity with lifestyle and treatment factors associated with prognosis. Methods: We included 9,331 women from the After Breast Cancer Pooling Project who provided data on social networks within two years following diagnosis. A social network index was derived from information about the presence of a spouse or intimate partner, religious ties, community participation, friendship ties, and numbers of relatives. Diversity was assessed as variety of ties, independent of size. We used logistic regression to evaluate associations with outcomes and evaluated whether effect estimates differed using meta-analytic techniques. Results: Associations of social networks and outcomes generally did not differ by cohort. Because of the low prevalence of smoking and alcohol consumption in the Shanghai cohort, however, analyses of smoking and alcohol included US cohorts only. Women who were socially isolated (small networks) were more likely to be obese (body mass index>30 kg/m2, OR=1.21, 95% CI:1.03-1.42) and have low physical activity (<10 MET-h/wk, OR=1.53, 95% CI:1.34-1.75) compared to socially integrated women. Women with low network diversity were more likely to be current smokers (OR=3.68, 95% CI:2.19-6.19) and have high alcohol consumption (>15 g/d alcohol, OR=2.43, 95% CI:1.60-3.69). Among node positive cases, socially isolated women were more likely not to receive chemotherapy (OR=1.52, 95% CI:1.03-2.25). By contrast, low network diversity, but not social network size, was associated with greater odds of not receiving adjuvant hormonal therapy (OR=1.52, 95% CI:1.03-2.23). Associations with surgery were nonsignificant. Conclusions: In a large pooled cohort, small, less diverse social networks measured post-diagnosis were associated with more adverse lifestyle factors and less intensive cancer treatment, which may help to explain poorer breast cancer prognosis in socially isolated women.


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