Measuring Social Networks and Social Resources: An Exploratory ISSP Survey around the World

This publication documents the development of the ISSP module for the year 2017 titled "Social Networks and Social Resources". The authors begin by discussing instruments that have been developed to measure social relationships and networks. Subsequently, the conceptual framework underlying the module is presented. For the assessment and selection of items for the final module the authors can draw on a rich set of comparative survey data from pretests in China, Taiwan, France, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Great Britain, United States and Venezuela. Based on these data measures for all concepts of the theoretical model are derived and preliminary analysis of their validity, reliability and cross-national equivalence are performed. The publication ends with a description of items finally selected for the 2017 ISSP module and some suggestions for analyzing these data.Diese Publikation dokumentiert die Entwicklung des ISSP-Moduls für das Jahr 2017 mit dem Titel "Social Networks and Social Resources". Die Autoren diskutieren zunächst Instrumente, die zur Messung sozialer Beziehungen und Netzwerke entwickelt wurden. Anschließend wird der dem Modul zugrunde liegende konzeptionelle Rahmen vorgestellt. Für die Bewertung und Auswahl der Fragen für das endgültige Modul können die Autoren auf einen umfangreichen Satz vergleichender Umfragedaten aus Pretests in China, Taiwan, Frankreich, Deutschland, der Schweiz, der Türkei, Großbritannien, den USA und Venezuela zurückgreifen. Basierend auf diesen Daten werden Messungen für alle Konzepte des theoretischen Modells abgeleitet und eine vorläufige Analyse ihrer Gültigkeit, Zuverlässigkeit und länderübergreifenden Äquivalenz durchgeführt. Die Veröffentlichung endet mit einer Beschreibung der schließlich für das ISSP-Modul 2017 ausgewählten Fragen und einigen Vorschlägen zur Analyse dieser Daten

Formes de conjugalité et structuration des réseaux personnels : Quelle place pour le conjoint ?

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The ISSP 2017 Social Networks and Social Resources Module

This special issue introduces the 2017 Social Networks and Social Resources module of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). This module has been newly developed based on specific, up-to-date theoretical and methodological foundations. Within certain limits the designers of this module aimed at allowing comparisons with the previously fielded ISSP modules on Social Networks from 1986 and 2001. The module encompasses measures on social capital and social resources, assessed by both a position generator and questions on social resources coming from network members or formal organizations. They are complemented by other important social network dimensions capturing network structure and opportunities to access and mobilize social relationships. A strength of the new module is to assess multiple dimensions of social networks and social resources, which are crucial either for instrumental or expressive outcomes also introduced in the survey. The special issue includes first an introduction presenting the motivations behind the 2017 new module on Social Networks and Social Resources, the underlying model of the final questionnaire, a description focusing on the core of the social networks and resources measurement with some descriptive results on social capital, network support and sociability, and open the discussion towards some research questions it allows to examine in a comparative perspective

Collecting data on family configuration

Contemporary family contexts are characterized by a complex web of relationships, which goes beyond the household boundaries. Indeed, individuals develop meaningful relationships with non-residential family members, close friends, neighbors, colleagues, etc. Unfortunately, most surveys dealing with family ties focus on households and study a few dyads, mainly couple and parent–child relationships. This contribution addresses the use of social network methods for the understanding of the social matrix of family interdependencies in which individuals are embedded. Social network methods broaden the definition of family by starting with the individuals' own definition of their meaningful family context. They also allow the mapping of family networks based on the interdependencies existing among all family members. This contribution describes the use of social network methods in relation to three main settings: individuals in national representative surveys, individuals facing a family recomposition after divorce, and individuals in psychotherapy. In the light of the pluralization of life trajectories and the individualization of personal relationships, the proposed approach may significantly contribute to the understanding of the relationships that matter for individuals in contemporary societies, and of the creation of family-based social capital

From support to overload: patterns of positive and negative family relationships of adults with mental illness over time

Family relationships account for much of the support available to individuals with mental illness.Although some studies have acknowledged the importance of family support, and while others have underlined the harmful effects of negative relationships, research has seldom empirically considered the complex web of positive and negative relationships in family networks. This research hypothesised that social capital has distinct consequences for psychological health depending on the presence or absence of negative family relationships. Through a five-wave follow-up of 60 individuals undergoing psychotherapy in a private practice, the study explored the structural features of positive and negative relationships, considered jointly, in the family networks of adults with mental illness. Four patterns of relationships were found: bonding social capital, bridging social capital, overload and ego-centred conflict. Compared to individuals within a bonding or bridging social capital pattern, those experiencing overload and ego-centred conflict patterns showed higher levels of psychological distress. These results highlight the importance of considering the structural dimensions of positive and negative relationships together to understand the lasting connection between family networks and the psychological health of individuals with mental illness