A Practical Guide to Measuring Social Structure Using Indirectly Observed Network Data

Abstract

Aggregated relational data (ARD) are an increasingly common tool for learning about social networks through standard surveys. Recent statistical advances present social scientists with new options for analyzing such data. In this article, we propose guidelines for learning about various network processes using ARD and a template to aid practitioners. We first propose that ARD can be used to measure "social distance" between a respondent and a subpopulation (individuals named Kevin, those in prison, or those serving in the military). We then present common methods for analyzing these data and associate each of these methods with a specific way of measuring social distance, thus associating statistical tools with their underlying social science phenomena. We examine the implications of using each of these social distance measures using an Internet survey about contemporary political issues.

I agree to sit next to you. Does that mean I like you? Measuring using the wrong tapeline – the lack of ‘Social Distance’ measures for inclusive school development and research – a review of the literature

“…Aggregated Relational Data (Killworth, McCarty, Bernard, et al., ) measures networks indirectly by asking questions as How many X do you know? X can be replaced by any subpopulation of interest and unveils the frequency of interactions (McCormick, Moussa, Ruf, et al., ). Fishbein and Imai () observed children in schools during free play and coded interactions over a course of 2 days for six 5‐minute periods.…”

On estimating the average degree

“…One of their estimators is the same as that of [7]; however, they do not provide any variance analysis of their estimators. There have been some recent work on estimating personal network size (i.e., degree) using techniques inspired by respondentdriven sampling [15,16,17]; however, many of these results are heuristic in nature and do not address the sample complexity in a principled manner.…”

It’s Not Just What You Have, but Who You Know: Networks, Social Proximity to Elites, and Voting in State and Local Elections

“…In this manner, these measures are analogous to aggregated relational data, which are obtained through survey items that probabilistically approximate the social distance between survey respondents and various subgroups of interest(Killworth et al, 1998;McCormick et al, 2013).…”