Social networks and social capital: New directions for a household panel survey
Issue title: Assessing the need for a new nationally representative household
panel survey in the United States
Subtitle:
Guest editors: Robert Moffitt, Robert F. Schoeni, Charles Brown, P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Mick P. Couper, Ana V. Diez-Roux, Erik Hurst and Judith A. Seltzer
Affiliations: [a] Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, NY, USA | [b] Department of Sociology, Cornell University, NY, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Laura Tach, 253 Martha van Rensselaer Hall; Ithaca, NY, 14853; E-mail: lauratach@cornell.edu. Manuscript prepared for National Science Foundation conference on ``Assessing the Need for a New Nationally Representative Household Panel Survey in the United States,'' Washington DC, June 5-6, 2014
Abstract: This paper highlights the importance of the social networks perspective in
social science research and describes the main approaches to measuring
social networks and closely related phenomena - including social capital and
kin networks - in existing household panel surveys. It then identifies
cutting-edge techniques for collecting new data on social networks within
the context of a household panel survey design. We focus in particular on
possible extensions to traditional egocentric network data collection, the
proper enumeration of kin networks and social support in unstable and
complex families, measurement of communication via information and
communication technology, and identification of the social network
properties of social media participation.
Keywords: Social networks, social capital, social media, survey research
