Elsevier

Social Networks

Volume 17, Issues 3–4, July–October 1995, Pages 189-217
Social Networks

Magnitude of the problem
Who knows your HIV status? What HIV + patients and their network members know about each other

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8733(95)00262-MGet rights and content

Abstract

This research reports on an analysis of personal network data collected from 70 HIV-positive HIV/AIDS patients (48 men, 22 women; 45 black, 25 white). Issues examined were the conditions surrounding the difficulty of knowing information about social network members, including knowledge of HIV status. The stigmatizing nature of AIDS resulted in selective knowledge regarding a person's HIV status (and other information) among their social network members. Informants' networks appeared smaller than those for other groups we have investigated, and this may be due to informant self-limiting, or alter rejection of HIV informant. These results will be useful in determining the amount of HIV + in the general population, and these methods could be applied to other hard-to-count populations.

References (24)

  • H.Russell Bernard et al.

    Comparing four different methods for measuring personal social networks

    Social Networks

    (1990)
  • E.C. Johnsen et al.

    A social network approach to corroborating the number of AIDS/HIV + victims in the US

    Social Networks

    (1995)
  • Peter D. Killworth et al.

    Estimating the size of personal networks

    Social Networks

    (1990)
  • Judith K. Barr et al.

    Knowledge and attitudes about AIDS among corporate and public service employees

    American Journal of Public Health

    (1992)
  • H.R. Bernard et al.

    Estimating the size of an average personal network and of an event subpopulation

  • H.R. Bernard et al.

    Estimating the size of an average personal network and of an event subpopulation: some empirical results

    Social Science Research

    (1991)
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Frederick A. Ernst et al.

    Condemnation of homosexuality in the black community: A gender-specific phenomenon?

    Archives of Sexual Behavior

    (1991)
  • C. Fischer et al.

    A procedure for surveying personal networks

  • L.C. Freeman et al.

    Estimating acquaintanceship volume

  • Ann Hardy

    National health interview survey data on adult knowledge of AIDS in the United States

    Public Health Reports

    (1990)
  • Peter D. Killworth et al.

    A social network approach to estimating seroprevalence in the United States

    Journal of the American Statistical Association

    (1995)
  • Cited by (50)

    • You said, they said: A framework on informant accuracy with application to studying self-reports and peer-reports

      2022, Social Networks
      Citation Excerpt :

      To note, there are several potential pitfalls of using informant reports as well. First, informants may lack of knowledge about alters’ behaviors because the behaviors are not observable to them or because alters do not want to reveal their behaviors to informants (Bernard et al., 1984; Cowan, 2014; Shelley et al., 1995; Small, 2017). In addition, informants may not be willing to report on others, especially if the reported behavior is sensitive.

    • Combining the randomized response technique and the network scale-up method to estimate the female sex worker population size: an exploratory study

      2018, Public Health
      Citation Excerpt :

      To apply this method, two assumptions should be met: (1) every member of the high-risk population was given the chance to participate in the program and to respond to the survey; and (2) participating in the program is independent of being a respondent to the survey.1,2,12,14 NSUM was proposed by Bernard, Killworth, Johnsen, and Robinson in 1991,15 based on the basic principle of the personal network structure of the general population reflecting the social network structure in a given region.16–22 Initially, NSUM is conducted in two steps.

    • “It could turn ugly”: Selective disclosure of attitudes in political discussion networks

      2018, Social Networks
      Citation Excerpt :

      The systemic withdrawal from conversation to avoid disagreement provides a biased experience of the overall social network, and, as we will discuss in the conclusion, it may in turn also affect dynamics of selection and interpersonal influence in ways that have not yet been fully considered. The little empirical work on selective disclosure of personal characteristics largely involves stigmatized health secrets–pregnancy loss (Cowan, 2014; Lee, 1969) and HIV status (Shelley et al., 1995). While political opinions may not have a high degree of stigma associated with them, avoiding the topic altogether or selectively disclosing and withholding these opinions, can create the same kind of information gap that similar behavior with “weightier” secrets may (Cowan, 2014) and can create perceived segregation (DiPrete et al., 2011).

    • Validation of tie corroboration and reported alter characteristics among a sample of young men who have sex with men

      2017, Social Networks
      Citation Excerpt :

      The quality of reporting on these factors ranges, and is particularly reliant on the type of information collected. For instance, “asymmetric information,” or alter characteristics that are rarely known by the ego, such as HIV status, are likely to be less accurate than age or race (Shelley et al., 1995). Within egocentric networks, there are both direct and indirect ties between individuals.

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    This work was conducted under NSF grant No. SBR-9213615. Much of the analysis took place with the welcome hospitality of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida, which also provided computing support. We are also indebted to Georgia State University for providing office space for some of the interviews. In addition, we would like to thank Howard Kress and Craig Lindsey for assisting with some of the data collection. Most of all, we are extremely grateful for the time, energy and openness of all the HIV-positive individuals who participated in these interviews.

    View full text