Acculturation & Personal Networks across cultures

The initial aim of this study was to better understand how the mode of acculturation of immigrants is reflected in the composition and structure of their personal networks. Furthermore, it was investigated whether personal network characteristics predicted health outcomes among immigrants.

Principal Researcher: 

Dr. Chris McCarty, University of Florida, USA
Dr. José Luis Molina, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain

Sponsor(s): 
National Science Foundation
Grant number: 
BCS-0417429
Main topics: 
Coverage
Date of fieldwork: 
2004-2006
Countries: 
Spatial units: 
Observation units: 
Kind of data: 
Universe sampled
Location of observation units: 
New York, Metropolitan areas
Barcelona, Metropolitan areas
Population: 
Adult immigrants from several populations
Methodology
Time dimensions: 
Sampling procedures: 
Snowball sampling, initial recruitment through advertisement in local newspapers and from community centers
Number of units: 
554
Method of data collection: 
List of variables
Ego attributes: 
Sex, age, marital status, number of children, education, occupation, country of origin, country of origin father, country of origin mother, years of residence in host country, legal status in host country, visits to country of origin, remittances to country of origin, recipient of remittances, experience of discrimination, ethnic identification, ARSMA scale of acculturation, smoking behavior, body weight, body length, depression scale.
Name generator: 
“Please, give us the names of 45 persons you know and who know you by sight or by name, with whom you have had some contact in the past two years, either face-to-face, by phone, mail or e-mail, and whom you could still contact if you had to”. Respondents were first asked to list people who were close to them, and then to fill out the remaining 45 alters with friends, family and acquaintances that fit the definition. IDs have been anonymized.
Alter attributes: 
Country of origin, country of residence, gender, race, age in categories, duration of ego-alter relationship, type of ego-alter relationship (kin etc.), ego´s emotional closeness to alter, ego’s frequency of contact with alter. In addition, for the American data collection: smoking behavior, primary mode of contact between ego and alter, alter helps ego, ego and alter talk about personal problems.
Alter-alter relationships: 
“What is the likelihood that these two people talk to each other when you are not around? That is, what is the probability that these two people have a relationship independent of you?” [0 = Not at all probable, 1 = Somewhat probable, 2 = Very probable]
Date of release: 
Fri, 2010-12-31
Publications: 

U. Brandes, J. Lerner, M. J. Lubbers, C. McCarthy, J. L. Molina, & U. Nagel (2010). "Recognizing Modes of Acculturation in Personal Networks of Migrants", Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. In press.

M. J. Lubbers, J. L. Molina, J. Lerner, U. Brandes, J. Ávila, & C. McCarty (2010). Longitudinal analysis of personal networks. The case of Argentinean migrants in Spain. Social Networks, 32, 91-104.

J. Ávila Molera (2008). Redes personales de africanos y latinoamericanos en Cataluña, España. Análisis reticular de integración y cambio, REDES-Revista hispana para el análisis de redes sociales, Volumen 15 #5.

J. L. Molina, J. Lerner, & S. Gómez Mestres (2008). "Patrones de cambio de las redes personales de inmigrantes en Cataluña", REDES-Revista hispana para el análisis de redes sociales, Volumen 15 #4 (36-60).

U. Brandes, J. Lerner, M. J. Lubbers, C. McCarty, & J. L. Molina (2008). Visual statistics for collections of clustered graphs. Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE Pacific Visualization Symposium, March 5-7, Kyoto, Japan.

C. McCarty, & P. D. Killworth (2007). Impact of methods for reducing respondent burden on personal networks structural measures. Social Networks, 29, 2, 300-315.

M. J. Lubbers, J. L. Molina, & C. McCarty (2007). Personal Networks and Ethnic Identifications: The case of migrants in Spain. International Sociology, 22, 721 – 741.