Multiple-membership multiple-classification models for social network and group dependences

Citation

Tranmer, Mark; Steel, David; & Browne, William J. (2013). Multiple-membership multiple-classification models for social network and group dependences. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society). vol. 177 (2) pp. 439-455

Abstract

The social network literature on network dependences has largely ignored other sources of dependence, such as the school that a student attends, or the area in which an individual lives. The multilevel modelling literature on school and area dependences has, in turn, largely ignored social networks. To bridge this divide, a multiple-membership multiple-classification modelling approach for jointly investigating social network and group dependences is presented. This allows social network and group dependences on individual responses to be investigated and compared. The approach is used to analyse a subsample of the Adolescent Health Study data set from the USA, where the response variable of interest is individual level educational attainment, and the three individual level covariates are sex, ethnic group and age. Individual, network, school and area dependences are accounted for in the analysis. The network dependences can be accounted for by including the network as a classification in the model, using various network configurations, such as ego-nets and cliques. The results suggest that ignoring the network affects the estimates of variation for the classifications that are included in the random part of the model (school, area and individual), as well as having some influence on the point estimates and standard errors of the estimates of regression coefficients for covariates in the fixed part of the model. From a substantive perspective, this approach provides a flexible and practical way of investigating variation in an individual level response due to social network dependences, and estimating the share of variation of an individual response for network, school and area classifications.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/rssa.12021

Keyword(s)

Auto-correlation

Reference Type

Journal Article

Journal Title

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society)

Author(s)

Tranmer, Mark
Steel, David
Browne, William J.

Year Published

2013

Volume Number

177

Issue Number

2

Pages

439-455

ISSN/ISBN

1467-985X

DOI

10.1111/rssa.12021

Reference ID

4594