Evolution of friendship network and daily activities of high school students

Abstract

The goal of the present study is to analyze the evolution of adolescent friendship network and daily activities. The research question is that what kinds of activity and network variables explain the changes over time within a friendship network? At what stages are these variables important? A network survey was carried out in a classroom of a high school. The subjects were 45 high school students of 28 boys and 17 girls. Sociometric data were collected by having each student nominate up to 16 intimate classmates. These nominations were measured their gender and common activities including chatting, participating students' club, going to cram, having dinner, discussing homework, playing game, heart to heart talking, going to movie, shopping, and outdoor sport. Panel data was collected 10 times across 3 semesters from Sep. 2008 to Jan. 2010. The program SIENA was applied to estimate the models for the evolution of social networks and daily activities. Results showed that heart to heart talk had effect on friendship formation in the beginning of the first 2 semesters, going to cram and sporting had effects on keeping friendship between 2 semesters, and going to cram, club, and sporting had effects at the end of observations. It is concluded that each daily activity has specific effect on friendship initiation, maintaining, and continue at different stage for adolescents, and the mechanism is discussed.