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Egocentric Social Network Structure, Health, and Pro-Social Behaviors in a National Panel Study of Americans

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  • A James O’Malley
  • Samuel Arbesman
  • Darby Miller Steiger
  • James H Fowler
  • Nicholas A Christakis

Abstract

Using a population-based, panel survey, we study how egocentric social networks change over time, and the relationship between egocentric network properties and health and pro-social behaviors. We find that the number of prosocial activities is strongly positively associated with having more friends, or an increase in degree, with approximately 0.04 more prosocial behaviors expected for every friend added. Moreover, having more friends is associated with an improvement in health, while being healthy and prosocial is associated with closer relationships. Specifically, a unit increase in health is associated with an expected 0.45 percentage-point increase in average closeness, while adding a prosocial activity is associated with a 0.46 percentage-point increase in the closeness of one’s relationships. Furthermore, a tradeoff between degree and closeness of social contacts was observed. As the number of close social contacts increases by one, the estimated average closeness of each individual contact decreases by approximately three percentage-points. The increased awareness of the importance of spillover effects in health and health care makes the ascertainment of egocentric social networks a valuable complement to investigations of the relationship between socioeconomic factors and health.

Suggested Citation

  • A James O’Malley & Samuel Arbesman & Darby Miller Steiger & James H Fowler & Nicholas A Christakis, 2012. "Egocentric Social Network Structure, Health, and Pro-Social Behaviors in a National Panel Study of Americans," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-9, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0036250
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036250
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    Cited by:

    1. Takagi, Daisuke & Yokouchi, Nobutada & Hashimoto, Hideki, 2020. "Smoking behavior prevalence in one's personal social network and peer's popularity: A population-based study of middle-aged adults in Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    2. Mary-Catherine Anderson & Ashley Hazel & Jessica M. Perkins & Zack W. Almquist, 2021. "The Ecology of Unsheltered Homelessness: Environmental and Social-Network Predictors of Well-Being among an Unsheltered Homeless Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-22, July.
    3. Sania Ashraf & Cristina Bicchieri & Upasak Das & Tanu Gupta & Alex Shpenev, 2024. "Learning from diversity: ``jati" fractionalization, social expectations and improved sanitation practices in India," Discussion Papers 24-01, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    4. Lotte Prevo & Stef Kremers & Maria Jansen, 2020. "The Power of Trading: Exploring the Value of a Trading Shop as a Health-Promoting Community Engagement Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-15, June.
    5. Yusra Ghafoor & Yi-Shin Chen & Kuan-Ta Chen, 2019. "Social Interaction Scaling for Contact Networks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-14, May.
    6. Rassaby, Madeleine & Shakya, Holly B. & Fowler, James H. & Oveis, Christopher & Sieber, William J. & Jain, Sonia & Stein, Murray B. & Taylor, Charles T., 2024. "Application of an egocentric social network approach to examine changes in social connections following treatment for anxiety and depression: A novel measurement tool for clinical trials research?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    7. Eggerman, Jannik J. & Dajani, Rana & Kumar, Praveen & Chui, Susannah & Qtaishat, Lina & El Kharouf, Amal & Panter-Brick, Catherine, 2023. "Social networks, empowerment, and wellbeing among Syrian refugee and Jordanian women: Implications for development and social inclusion," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    8. Fotouhi, Babak & Rytina, Steven, 2018. "Mathematical Modeling and Inference for Degree-capped Ego-centric Network Sampling," SocArXiv 5kez8, Center for Open Science.
    9. Shand, Calum & Crozier, Sarah & Vassilev, Ivaylo & Penn-Newman, Daniel & Dhuria, Preeti & Cooper, Cyrus & Rogers, Anne & Baird, Janis & Vogel, Christina, 2021. "Resources in women's social networks for food shopping are more strongly associated with better dietary quality than people: A cross-sectional study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    10. Collonnaz, Magali & Riglea, Teodora & Kalubi, Jodi & O'Loughlin, Jennifer & Naud, Alexandre & Kestens, Yan & Agrinier, Nelly & Minary, Laetitia, 2022. "Social network analysis to study health behaviours in adolescents: A systematic review of methods," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    11. Sania Ashraf & Cristina Bicchieri & Upasak Das & Tanu Gupta & Alex Shpenev, 2023. "Learning from diversity: jati fractionalization, social expectations and improved sanitation practices in India," Papers 2312.15221, arXiv.org.

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