Open AccessInvestigating social support patterns of single mothers from a social network perspective
Author(s) -
Rosaria Lumino,
Giancarlo Ragozini,
María Prosperina Vitale
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international review of social research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.107
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 2069-8534
pISSN - 2069-8267
DOI - 10.1515/irsr-2016-0021
Subject(s) - social support , social network (sociolinguistics) , perspective (graphical) , affect (linguistics) , id, ego and super ego , social network analysis , variety (cybernetics) , psychology , sociology , social psychology , computer science , social capital , artificial intelligence , world wide web , social science , social media , communication
In the present study, we discuss how social\udnetwork analysis approach can be fruitful exploited to\udstudy social support within family studies. An ego-centred\udnetwork approach is adopted within a case study about\udsocial support networks of low income single mothers\udliving in a city of southern Italy. We address three main\udissues. First, we aim to describe and explore the structure\udof social relationships that single mothers activate in\udorder to obtain different kind of supports. Second, we\udinvestigate the main factors that affect the amount and\udvariety of resources embedded in the single mothers’\udsupport networks. Third, we analyse the relationship\udbetween the received social support embedded in the ego\udnetwork and the support perceived by mothers. Beyond\udthe description of composition and structure of egocentred\udnetworks through network measures and factorial\udmethods, a series of regression models was estimated to\udassess factors explaining received and perceived support\udof single mothers