Friendship Networks in Developing Relationships: Converging and Diverging Social Environments

Adolescent Development in Interpersonal Context

“…Adolescents regard being in a romantic relationship as central to " belonging" and status in the peer group (Connolly, Craig, Goldberg, & Pepler, 1999;Levesque, 1993). The link may be a transactional one: Peer networks support early romantic coupling, and romantic relationships facilitate connections with other peers (Connolly, Furman, & Konarski, 2000;Milardo, 1982; for reviews, see B. Brown, 2004;Furman, 1999;Giordano, 2003).…”

Direct and Mediated Interaction in the Maintenance of Social Relationships

“…One, in effect, rearranges their social network giving the new partner a more central position while pushing other older relationships into more peripheral zones. The number of mutual friends also increases [44]. Thus, a new friendship blocks the potential to develop other relationships.…”

“…On the negative side, however, this can come at the expense of stronger face-to-face ties.27 Thus, just as noted by Johnson and Leslie [26] a friendship lays claim to time and energy to the exclusion of other activities, the use of the Internet is a prioritization that can exclude interaction with other face-to-face friends (see also [44]). …”

Types of social networks and the transition to parenthood

“…Second, network density was also measured by a proxy (share of kin). Third, it was not possible to answer the question about the extent to which fertilityrelevant social networks overlap within couple relationships (Milardo 1982). Fourth, for the present analysis, 'only' ego-centric network data were available.…”