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Communication in social networks: Effects of kinship, network size, and emotional closeness
Author(s) -
ROBERTS SAM G. B.,
DUNBAR ROBIN I. M.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2010.01310.x
Subject(s) - closeness , kinship , friendship , social psychology , psychology , social network (sociolinguistics) , social contact , developmental psychology , sociology , social media , computer science , world wide web , mathematics , mathematical analysis , anthropology
Communication is important in preventing social relationships from decaying over time. This study examined the effects of social network size, emotional closeness, and type of relationship (kinship vs. friendship) on communication patterns in the social networks of 251 women. Participants with large kin networks had longer times to last contact to both kin and friends. Participants with high levels of emotional closeness in their networks had shorter times to last contact. The effect of emotional closeness on time to last contact was greater for kin than for friends. These results demonstrate that time to last contact is closely tied to emotional closeness and suggest that the costs of maintaining kin relationships are lower than the costs of maintaining friendships.