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Dear Socnet Members,

I have got a set of ego-network data including 103 egos and 590 alteris.
The data were collected on the basis of a single name generator. The
number of alteris that egos could name was restricted to 8 due to the
survey design. Relational network measures such as tie strength etc.
shall now be used as independent variables in different multiple
regression models to explain a dependant variable.

E.g. - Tie strength was measured by assessing the closeness, duration,
and frequency of each relationship. Then, ties were categorized as
either weak or strong, and after that the number of weak and strong ties
was counted. Clearly, the resulting measure is a function of network size

Aim - Test the following hypothesis: The number of weak ties is
positively associated with the dependant variable.

My question now is: Do I have to normalize the measures to account for
the different ego network sizes? If so, how do I do that? For example,
just dividing the number of strong/weak ties by the number of all ties
in ego's network does not reflect what I want.

Any help or references to articles where researchers dealt with this
problem (ego-network analysis that is not part of a whole network,
restriction of alteris) are highly appreciated.

Apologies if the answer might sound too simple to some of you!

Regards,

Christoph

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