Social network associations with contraceptive use among Cameroonian women in voluntary associations

The stability of centrality measures when networks are sampled

“…Data for studies four and five were collected in 1993 from women's voluntary associations, tontines, in urban Cameroon using both nominations and roster data collection techniques (Valente et al, 1997). Study participants initially were asked to nominate five friends who were members of their voluntary organization.…”

Selective risk taking among needle exchange participants: implications for supplemental interventions

“…At the population level, network group formation creates spikes in incidence levels as the disease spreads rapidly through these tightly connected subgroups. 22 At least 3 methods have been developed to study network influences on risk behavior: (1) census methods consist of interviewing all of the members within a bounded community and asking each person for the names of their interaction partners [23][24][25] ; (2) snowball methods consist of asking respondents to name their contacts and then interviewing all or a sample of those persons named and, depending on the extent of the study, the contacts of those contacts 26 ; and (3) personal network methods consist of asking respondents to provide the initials (or names) of those people with whom they interact and asking respondents to provide information on those contacts. In this study, we used the personal network approach and asked each respondent to provide the initials of his or her 5 closest friends.…”

Max‐Planck‐Gesellschaft 1952/1954

“…Although 31 % of respondents in Kenya 2 reported that they themselves used family planning, they reported that 56 % of their network partners used; a similar discrepancy was found in an analysis of the networks of urban Cameroonian women (Valente et al 1997) (Note 19). This certainly suggests that respondents select those who are believed to use family planning for conversations about family planning.…”

“…For example, demographers have found that the attitudes and behaviors of an individual are strongly related to the presence of these same attitudes and behaviors among those with whom she interacts (e.g. Montgomery and Casterline 1993;Entwisle et al 1996;Valente et al 1997;Munshi and Myaux 1997;Montgomery and Chung 1999;Entwisle and Godley 1998;Kohler, Behrman and Watkins 2001;Behrman, Kohler and Watkins 2002;Bühler and Kohler 2003), and similar analyses have been conducted with respect to more general behaviors (e.g. Brock and Durlauf 2001).…”