Short-term and long-term effects of a social network intervention on friendships among university students

Zsófia Boda*, Timon Elmer, András Vörös, Christoph Stadtfeld*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)
14 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Informal social relations, such as friendships, are crucial for the well-being and success of students at all levels of education. Network interventions can aim at providing contact opportunities in school settings to prevent the social isolation of individuals and facilitate integration between otherwise segregated social groups. We investigate the short-term and long-term effects of one specific network intervention in an undergraduate cohort freshly admitted to an engineering department (N=226). In this intervention, we randomly assigned students into small groups at an introduction event two months prior to their first day at university. The groups were designed to increase mixed-gender contact opportunities. Two months after the intervention, we find a higher rate of friendships, common friends, and mixed-gender friendships in pairs of students who were assigned to the same group than in pairs from different groups (short-term effects). These effects gradually diminish over the first academic year (long-term effects). Using stochastic actor-oriented models, we investigate the long-term trajectory of the intervention effects, while considering alternative network processes, such as reciprocity, transitivity, homophily, and popularity. The results suggest that even though the induced friendship ties are less stable than other friendships, they may serve as early seeds for complex social network processes. Our study shows that simple network interventions can have a pronounced short-term effect and indirect long-term effects on the evolution and structure of student communities.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2889
Number of pages12
JournalScientific Reports
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Feb 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors thank the members of the Social Networks Lab at ETH Zürich for helpful comments and suggestions that considerably improved this work; the university management, department officials, Stefan Wehrli, Marion Hoffman, Kieran Mepham, Isabel Raabe, Julia von Fellenberg, Afke Schouten, Charlotte Corrodi, and many others for supporting the data collection; and, most importantly, the anonymous study participants for the invaluable insights into the lives of students that they shared with us. The Swiss StudentLife Study was supported by Swiss National Science Foundation Grants 10001A_169965 and 10DL17_183008, and the rectorate of ETH Zürich.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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