'Birds of a feather' - forever? Homogeneity in adult friendship networks through the life course

This paper studies the changes in the homogeneity of friendship networks in terms of gender, age, and educational diversity. It is argued that through the life course, both an individual's demand and the structural supply of similar others change. This should be reflected in the composition of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAdvances in life course research Vol. 53; p. 100498
Main Author Völker, Beate
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Netherlands 01.09.2022
Subjects
Adult
Educational Status
Friends
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Life Change Events
Adult friendships
Social networks through time
Longitudinal networks
Friendships through the life course
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Summary:This paper studies the changes in the homogeneity of friendship networks in terms of gender, age, and educational diversity. It is argued that through the life course, both an individual's demand and the structural supply of similar others change. This should be reflected in the composition of friendship relations in personal networks. Rich network panel data that cover a period of 19 years are employed (The Social Survey of the Dutch, SSND). Results show that gender and educational homogeneity in friendships increases when people age, while age homogeneity remains unchanged. Notably, friendship as a relational category remains important throughout a person's life and only few respondents report that they have no friends.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:1569-4909
1879-6974
DOI:10.1016/j.alcr.2022.100498