Hi - Does anyone know any useful references regarding
determinants/factors/correlates of social interactions?

The concept of social interactions in itself is very broad and can be
examined from a psycho-social point of view as well as from a more
macro-structural angle. But for the purpose of my research, social
interactions are limited to informal personal relations captured from
ego-centered data on up to 4 conversation partners on family planning and
another 4 conversation partners on AIDS issues, plus some information about
exposure to mass-media channels and participation to different social events
last month and last year.

To understand a bit better the context of this inquiry, let me give you a
bit of background about myself and my research. I am a PhD student at the
Office of Population Research in Princeton University, and I am working on
rural Malawi, specifically on 3 research sites covering about 125 villages
with ego-centered data. My research is about "Individual and structural
determinants of social interactions related to family planning and AIDS
issues in rural Malawi". Basically, I am looking at the process and
determinants at the individual and community levels that facilitate or
prevent social diffusion of AIDS-related and reproductive knowledge,
attitudes and behaviors in the context of rural populations in Eastern and
Southern Africa.

One of the goal of this inquiry is to extend the recent research on social
dynamics in the context of reproductive health and behaviors, and to
conceptualize some of the structural and contextual properties of these
social interactions.

This study seeks to address the following research questions:

- How much various types of social interactions, related to family planning
and AIDS issues, vary between regions, communities, men and women, as well
as between different socio-economic and cultural sub-groups ?

- What are some of the socio-cultural, demographic, economic, structural and
spatial characteristics of the communities, households and individuals that
constraint, favor or inhibit these social interactions ?

- What is the effect of the level of community heterogeneity on the type and
nature of social interactions ? Does any threshold or particular set of
characteristics exist enabling particular social interactions ?

Thanks for any information, reference or contacts you could suggest.

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Patrick Gerland Princeton University
Phone: 1 (609) 258-4941 x.2 Office of Population Research
Email: [log in to unmask] 219 Wallace Hall
Fax: 1 (609) 258-1039 Princeton, NJ 08544, U.S.A.
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