Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Self-Structuring of Support: An Examination of Support Networks under Stress

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9612326 Carley The aim of this Dissertation Improvement research is to examine how individuals actively restructure their social networks in response to a life stressor, in this case an HIV diagnosis. A theory of network restructuring is proposed that is based on work in sociology and psychology on network evolution, in psychology and sociology on stress, and in social psychology on social support. According to this theory, it is predicted that in response to a life stressor: (1) the social support network becomes smaller; (2) the social support network becomes more dense (i.e., there are a greater proportion of relationships among the members of the network); and (3) informational and social support networks become more similar (i.e., the number of individuals who co-occur in both networks increases). The research investigates these hypotheses using data collected from individuals who will be gathered on a voluntary basis from a subject pool of more than 3000 men who are at high risk of infection or are already infected with HIV. A semi-structured interview will be conducted with participants to solicit information on their different types of networks (i.e., positive socio-emotional support, negative socio-emotional support, informational support, and the informed). Multivariate statistical techniques will be used to analyze the interview data. ***