Description data set for 2010 tutorial

This is a description of the data set collected by Andrea Knecht, used in the tutorial
Snijders, T.A.B., Steglich, C.E.G., and van de Bunt, G.G. (2010), Introduction to actor-based models for network dynamics, Social Networks 32, 44-60,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2009.02.004.
It is a small data set of dynamics of networks and behavior for which SIENA can provide estimates relatively quickly. The data were collected by Andrea Knecht. The full data set (see Knecht, 2008) contains a large number of classrooms - this is only one.

Download the data set.

Background

This data is about a friendship network in a Dutch school class. The data were collected between September 2003 and June 2004 by Andrea Knecht, supervised by Chris Baerveldt, at the Department of Sociology of the University of Utrecht (NL). The entire study is reported in Knecht (2008). The project was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO, grant 401-01-554.

The 26 students were followed over their first year at secondary school during which friendship networks as well as other data were assessed at four time points at intervals of three months. There were 17 girls and 9 boys in the class, aged 11-13 at the beginning of the school year. Network data were assessed by asking students to indicate up to twelve classmates which they considered good friends.

Delinquency is defined as a rounded average over four types of minor delinquency (stealing, vandalism, graffiti, and fighting), measured in each of the four waves of data collection. The five-point scale ranged from `never' to `more than 10 times', and the distribution is highly skewed. In a range of 1-5, the mode was 1 at all four waves, the average rose over time from 1.4 to 2.0, and the value 5 was never observed.

Coding

• Network variable

  The friendship networks are in adjacency format in the files klas12b-net-1.dat to klas12b-net-4.dat. They are coded as follows.

  • Friendship: 0 = no, 1 = yes, 9 = missing, 10 = not a member of the classroom (structural zero).

• Changing actor variables

  File klas12b-delinquency.dat contains a variable about delinquency for waves 1-2-3-4, coded as follows.

  • Delinquency: rounded average of four items (stealing, vandalizing, fighting, graffiti);
    categories: frequency over last three months,
    1 = never, 2 = once, 3 = 2-4 times, 4 = 5-10 times, 5 = more than 10 times;
    0 = missing.

  File klas12b-alcohol.dat contains a variable about alcohol use, but it refers only to waves 2-3-4.

  • alcohol "How often did you drink alcohol with friends in the last three months?"
    categories: 1 = never, 2 = once, 3 = 2-4 times, 4 = 5-10 times, 5 = more than 10 times;
    0 = missing.

• Constant actor variables

  The file klas12b-demographics.dat contains the following four variables.

  1. Sex (1 = girl, 2 = boy)
  2. Age (years)
  3. Ethnicity (1 = Dutch, 2 = other, 0 = missing)
  4. Religion (1 = Christian, 2 = non-religious, 3 = non-Christian religion, 0 = missing)

  The file klas12b-advice.dat contains the variable "school advice", the assessment given at the end of primary school about the school capacities of the pupil

  • advice (4 = low, 8 = high, 0 = missing)

• Changing dyadic variable

  File klas12b-primary.dat contains a variable indicating having gone to the same primary school.

  • Same primary school: 0 = no, 1 = yes.

• Changing composition variable

  File klas12b-present.dat contains a variable indicating changing composition in the format equired by RSiena.

RSiena script

• klas12b.r Network dynamics, treating the pupil who left using the changing composition file (leaving immediately after wave 2).

RSiena setup files

• klas12b_net.csv Network dynamics, treating the pupil who left using the changing composition file (leaving immediately after wave 2).
• klas12b_neta.csv Network dynamics, treating the pupil who left as missing data.
• klas12b_netbeh.csv Dynamics of networks and behavior, treating the pupil who left by structural zeros.
• klas12b_netbeha.csv Dynamics of networks and behavior, treating the pupil who left as missing data.

References

• Knecht, A., 2008. Friendship Selection and Friends' Influence. Dynamics of Networks and Actor Attributes in Early Adolescence. PhD dissertation, University of Utrecht.
• Andrea Knecht, Tom A. B. Snijders, Chris Baerveldt, Christian E. G. Steglich, and Werner Raub. Friendship and Delinquency: Selection and Influence Processes in Early Adolescence, Social Development.
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00564.x.
• Snijders, T.A.B., Steglich, C.E.G., and van de Bunt, G.G. (2010). Introduction to actor-based models for network dynamics. Social Networks, 32, 44-60.
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2009.02.004.
• Steglich, Christian, and Knecht, Andrea (2009), Die statistische Analyse dynamischer Netzwerkdaten. In: Christian Stegbauer and Roger Häußling (Eds.), Handbuch der Netzwerkforschung, Wiesbaden (Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften).

Back to the Siena data sets page