Understanding How Personal Networks Change

描述(申请人提供)：众所周知，个人的个人网络对他们的身心健康有很大影响。然而，人们对这些网络如何随时间变化、对生活事件做出反应以及个人如何重建的了解要少得多，也不太可靠，这意味着对网络如何影响健康的理解仍然非常有限。该项目旨在解决三个主要问题。首先，拟议的项目将是一项独特的小组研究，通过在大样本中提出多个引出名字的问题，生成丰富的网络结构图景(而不是受访者的摘要评估)，现在又增加了时间维度。其次，这些数据将揭示个人网络的动态：它们是如何变化的，是什么让它们发生变化，以及个人如何适应这些变化。研究结果将表明，哪些人在应对事件和维持他们的网络方面做得更好--或者更差--以及对健康的影响。现有的美国已发表的研究或正在进行的数据收集调查都没有通过结合丰富的网络数据、大样本和小组结构来解决这些问题。第三，拟议的项目将对网络测量方法进行实验，以实现对其他样本的有效研究，特别是通过将面对面访谈收集的数据与通过互联网收集的数据进行比较。本项目将描述、跟踪和解释网络变化和重建。它远远超越了现有的研究，因为它结合了(1)深入的、多维的和可靠的个人网络测量方法，(2)小组设计，(3)足够大但重点突出的样本。具体地说，这项拟议的研究包括三波采访，每波采访21-30岁和50-70岁的人，相隔18个月，利用每波采访的大部分时间来获取对他们个人社会关系的详细描述。这些问题将产生个人网络的许多多维度量。剩下的面试时间将用来衡量身心健康、生活事件和个性。行政当局将需要在设计中系统地混合三波面谈和网上访谈，以便能够评估模式对网络(和其他)措施的影响，并为今后关于个人网络的研究开发一种有效的网上工具。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is known that individuals' personal networks significantly affect their physical and mental well-being. Yet much less is known - and much less reliably - how those networks change over time, respond to life events, and are reconstructed by individuals, which means that the understanding of how networks affect health remains significantly limited. This project is designed to address three major issues. First, the proposed project will be a unique panel study generating a rich picture of network structure (rather than summary assessments by respondents) via multiple name-eliciting questions in a large sample, adding now the dimension of time. Second, these data will reveal the dynamics of personal networks: how they change, what makes them change, and how individuals adapt to those changes. The study results will indicate which individuals are better- or worse-equipped to respond to events and to sustain their networks - and with what health consequences. No existing American published studies or on-going data-collecting surveys address such issues by combining rich network data, large samples, and a panel structure. Third, the proposed project will conduct experiments on the network-measuring methodology to enable effective studies of other samples as well, in particular, by comparing data gathered in face-to-face interviews with data gathered over the internet. This project will describe, track, and explain network change and reconstruction. It goes far beyond existing studies by combining (1) in-depth, multidimensional, and reliable measures of personal networks with (2) a panel design, in (3) a sufficiently large, yet focused, sample. Specifically, the proposed study consists of three waves of interviews, 18 months apart, of 21-30 and 50-to-70 year-olds, using the bulk of the interview time in each wave to elicit detailed descriptions of their personal social ties. These questions wil yield many multidimensional measures of personal networks. The remainder of the interview time will be devoted to measuring physical and mental health, life events, and personality. The administration will entail systematically mixing face-to-face and web interviewing over the three waves in a design that will allow evaluations of mode effects on network (and other) measures, and development of an effective web-based instrument for future research on personal networks.