Ego-Centric Networks

An ego-centric network is the segment of a group’s social network surrounding a focal node or actor (ego), depicting the structure of that node’s proximate social ties. In research about individuals, ego-centric networks are sometimes termed personal networks. Studies use ego-centric network data to examine how the social environments of individual actors shape their well-being, behaviors, and attitudes and to learn about factors that predict variations in those social contexts. Measures based on ego-centric network data often serve as indicators of the availability of social capital or social support.

An ego-centric network consists of an ego node, a set of alter nodes linked to the ego in some specified way, and the relationships among them. Narrowly defined ego-centric networks may include only a relatively small set ...

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