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15-10-2016

A mixed-methods approach for analysing social support and social anchorage of single mothers’ personal networks

Authors: Rosaria Lumino, Giancarlo Ragozini, Marijtje van Duijn, Maria Prosperina Vitale

Published in: Quality & Quantity | Issue 2/2017

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Abstract

The present paper analyses the relationship among social support and personal networks by focusing on social anchorage, which is a specific dimension of social support conveying to what extent people feel integrated into their personal networks. Specifying when, why, and how personal relationships play a significant role in individual lives is a common concern at the core of studies on social support. For this reason, the study adopts a strategy of analysis for ego-centred social support networks based on a mixed-methods approach. Hence, the strength of social networks analytical tools and multilevel logistic regression models is combined with the opportunities stemming from qualitative data provided by in-depth interviews. Firstly, statistical tools are used to describe the patterns of social support relationships in ego networks and to estimate the main determinants of social anchorage; secondly narratives are considered to understand the content, the meaning, and the significance that social relationships have for egos. The case of single mothers, which represent a clear instance of the relevance of social support derived from personal networks, is investigated.

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Forms of bonding solidarity occur among homogeneous groups (e.g., family members, close friends, neighbours) providing a sense of identity, common purposes, and different supports typically deployed to reduce daily life hardship. Close relationships, especially those with kin, are thought to best serve this coping function. However these latter risk to hamper people to acquire the skills and resources to participate in networks that transcend their community. Forms of bridging solidarity imply weaker connections that cross various social divides based on religion, class, ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status, and they are considered for providing access to information, influence, and financial resources that can improve economic status and facilitate upward mobility.

For a description of the Zimet scale (Zimet et al. 1988) used to collect single mother self-report measures of perceived support, see Lumino et al. (2016).

The data obtained from the different single mothers are mutually independent, keeping one of the main conditions for applying specific regression models for personal network data (Snijders et al. 1995).

E-NET software was used to compute ego-centred networks indices (Borgatti and Halgin 2012).

More specifically, the effective size is referred to as the number of alteri that the ego has minus the average number of ties that each alter has to the other alteri, the efficiency obtained by dividing the effective size by the network size, the constraint as the extent to which ego contacts are redundant, and the hierarchy as the extent to which the constraint on the ego is concentrated in a relationship with a single alter.

Initial estimates were obtained by using the first-order marginal quasi likelihood (MQL) procedure, and the second-order predictive (or penalised) quasi likelihood (PQL) procedure of IGLS estimation method. Even if the low value of level-2 variance underestimated in MQL and PQL procedures, better estimates were obtained by using MCMC method setting 5000 burning, 50,000 runs and thininng of 10.

It represents a hierarchical modeling generalization of the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC).

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Title: A mixed-methods approach for analysing social support and social anchorage of single mothers’ personal networks
Authors: Rosaria Lumino
Giancarlo Ragozini
Marijtje van Duijn
Maria Prosperina Vitale
Publication date: 15-10-2016
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Quality & Quantity / Issue 2/2017
Print ISSN: 0033-5177
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7845
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-016-0439-6

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