TY - JOUR

T1 - Residential mobility and the spatial dispersion of personal networks: Effects on social support

AU - Viry, Gil

PY - 2012/1

Y1 - 2012/1

N2 - Using a representative national sample of personal networks, this article explores how the spatial dispersion of networks, residential mobility and social support are linked. Three issues will be addressed here. Firstly, how is the spatial dispersion of personal networks related to individuals' social characteristics, network composition and residential mobility? Secondly, how do the spatial dispersion of networks, residential mobility and their combined effect influence the number and (thirdly) the structure of emotional support ties? Results showed that the extent of the support was affected neither by the geographical distribution of the networks nor by residential mobility. Living far from one's birthplace, however, exerted two distinct, and opposite effects on the support network structure. On the one hand, mobility led to high spatial dispersion of personal contacts, which in turn favored a sparsely knit network centered around the mobile individual. On the other hand, by controlling for the effect of distance between the contacts, we found that individuals that cited long-distance ties tended to be part of more transitive support networks than those that cited local ties. We interpreted the latter effect as evidence that transitive ties may survive greater spatial distances than intransitive ones. These findings are discussed in view of spatial mobility and social network research. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

AB - Using a representative national sample of personal networks, this article explores how the spatial dispersion of networks, residential mobility and social support are linked. Three issues will be addressed here. Firstly, how is the spatial dispersion of personal networks related to individuals' social characteristics, network composition and residential mobility? Secondly, how do the spatial dispersion of networks, residential mobility and their combined effect influence the number and (thirdly) the structure of emotional support ties? Results showed that the extent of the support was affected neither by the geographical distribution of the networks nor by residential mobility. Living far from one's birthplace, however, exerted two distinct, and opposite effects on the support network structure. On the one hand, mobility led to high spatial dispersion of personal contacts, which in turn favored a sparsely knit network centered around the mobile individual. On the other hand, by controlling for the effect of distance between the contacts, we found that individuals that cited long-distance ties tended to be part of more transitive support networks than those that cited local ties. We interpreted the latter effect as evidence that transitive ties may survive greater spatial distances than intransitive ones. These findings are discussed in view of spatial mobility and social network research. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

KW - Personal network analysis

KW - Geographical distance

KW - Residential mobility

KW - Social support

KW - Spatial mobility

KW - Network spatial dispersion

KW - BUILDING-DESIGN INDUSTRY

KW - TRANSNATIONAL PROFESSIONALS

KW - FRIENDSHIP NETWORKS

KW - GEOGRAPHIC-MOBILITY

KW - DISTANCE MATTER

KW - TIES

KW - LIFE

KW - NEIGHBORHOODS

KW - COMMUNITIES

KW - INTERNET

U2 - 10.1016/j.socnet.2011.07.003

DO - 10.1016/j.socnet.2011.07.003

M3 - Journal article

VL - 34

SP - 59

EP - 72

JO - Social Networks

JF - Social Networks

IS - 1

ER -