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Friends Network Expansion and Reduction: Investigating the Role of Structural and Psychological Factors

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Networks in the Global World V (NetGloW 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 181))

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Abstract

Rich data from social networks sites (SNS) attracts attention of psychologists and sociologists interested in interpersonal dynamics, friendship networks, and social capital. The presented study explores the effect of network structural features and psychological characteristics of SNS users on changes in their friendship networks. The data from the representative and diverse sample of 375 Russian Vkontakte SNS users from Vologda city was used. Two waves of network data collection allow us to estimate changes in the size of the friendship networks. Regression analysis reveals similarities in the factors responsible for the changes in networks for users who attract or reject friends. We discuss possible explanations of this phenomenon, as well as limitations of the study and further research directions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “Active” users are those 1) with non-deactivated Vkontakte accounts and 2) who have visited Vkontakte account no later than half a year prior to the date of data gathering.

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Acknowledgments

This article is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Social and Cognitive Informatics, National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Yadviga Sinyavskaya & Alexander Porshnev

  2. Department of General and Strategic Management, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

    Alexander Porshnev

Authors
  1. Yadviga Sinyavskaya
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  2. Alexander Porshnev
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yadviga Sinyavskaya .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. St. Petersburg University, Centre for German and European Studies, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Artem Antonyuk

  2. St. Petersburg University, Centre for German and European Studies, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Nikita Basov

Appendix

Appendix

Table 3. Nested regressions for whole sample
Full size table
Table 4. Nested regressions for expansion group
Full size table
Table 5. Nested regressions for reduction group
Full size table

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Sinyavskaya, Y., Porshnev, A. (2021). Friends Network Expansion and Reduction: Investigating the Role of Structural and Psychological Factors. In: Antonyuk, A., Basov, N. (eds) Networks in the Global World V. NetGloW 2020. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 181. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64877-0_13

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