collecting data on ego-centered social networks on the web (aoir2003)
DESCRIPTION
Presentation on AOIR InternetResearch4.0 conference, Toronto, October 2003TRANSCRIPT
Collecting Data on Ego-Centered Social
Networks on the Web
Gašper Koren, Vesna DolničarKatja Lozar Manfreda, Vasja Vehovar,
and Valentina Hlebec
[Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana]
InternetResearch Toronto, 16. october 2003
4.0
Presentation outline
1. Aim of the study
2. Collecting data on ego-centered social
networks
3. Data collection
4. Results
5. Conclusions
6. Further research
http://websm.org/
Aim of the study
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To test some relevant methodological issues for collecting data on complex issues with self-administered survey methods (Web Survey):
1. Influence of graphical design
2. Way of collecting data on ‘repeating’
questions
http://websm.org/
EGO
Vesna
Gašper
Mat
Val
Mick Vasja
Katja
Network Generator
• Special question for respondent (EGO) to report on his social network (ALTERS)
• In our case: measuring social support
http://websm.org/
“From time to time, most people discuss important personal matters with other people, for instance if they have problems at work, at
university, with partner or parents or other similar situations. Who are the people with
whom you discuss personal matters that are important to you?“
(emotional support)
Data collection
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July - October 2001
• RIS – Research on Internet in Slovenia Web Survey • Over 14.000 respondents
Survey I.
August - September 2003
• Special Survey on Social Networks• 300 respondents• some preliminary results will be presented here
Survey II.
Survey I. (2001)
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• 1000 respondents
• 4 different network generators (measuring 4 different types of social support), 1 graphical design
• Ego should answer 11 questions for every listed alter (alter-vise questioning)
Survey II. (2003)
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• 300 respondents
• 1 network generator, 3 different graphical designs (10 n.s., 5 n.s., 1 n.s.)
• 2 ways of collecting data on alters
(alter-vise vs. variable-vise)
Number of listed alters I.
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0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Shorter
Longer
Survey I. (2001)• graphical design with 30 name spaces• varying instructions (long vs. short)
Number of listed alters II.
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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
30 name spaces
10 name spaces
30 name spaces | 10 name spacesmax 30 13mean 6.4 4.66
Heaping
Number of listed alters III.
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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
10 name spaces
5 name spaces10 name spaces | 5 name spaces
max 13 14mean 4.66 4.06
p = 0.1
Heaping
Number of listed alters IV.
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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
5 name spaces
1 name space5 name spaces | 1 name spaces
max 14 16mean 4.06 3.15
p = 0.01
Average number of completed name interpreters (Survey I.)
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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Ideal line
Average number of completed name interpreters (Survey II.)
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0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
alter-vise
variable-vise
Conclusions
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• Graphical design is highly suggestive!
• Design with one name space per screen has the best outperformance (closest to other survey modes)
• Variable-vise questioning performs better than Alter-vise (however both have high drop-off rate!)
• Web data collection mode can be used for collecting ego-centered data, however one should be aware of all disadvantages of this data collection mode
Further research
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• How-to reduce number of additional questions on alters without reducing qualitiy of collected data
• Time needed for each type of answering questionaitre (Alter-vise vs. Variable-vise)
WebSM
University of LjubljanaFaculty of Social Sciences
http://www.websm.org/
http://www.ris.org/ http://www.fdv.uni-lj.si/
Contact and aditional information