Sex differences in social networks
16
Overlap between Social Networks and Friendship Relations
Table 2 shows that on average girls and boys were best friends with 4-6% of the class and
friends with 12 -14% of the class. Sex differences in the number of friends and best friends were not
evident.
There are two ways of viewing the overlap between friendships and social networks, which
provide different insights into boys’ and girls’ social networks and friendships. The friendship -
network overlap can be viewed as a proportion of the total network relations at each of the core,
cluster or group levels. Alternatively, the overlap can be considered as a proportion of total best
friendship and friendship relations. For the sake of space and to make a parallel distinction to that of
friends and best friends, data only at the end of the year and for core and group levels are presented.
Friendship-social network overlap as a proportion of the social network.
Table 2 shows that around half of core relations were also best friends and three-quarters were
friends. While a similar core-best friend overlap was evident for males and females, a main effect of
sex was found for the core-friendship overlap (F(1,55)=13.14, p= .001, d = 1.14), with a greater
portion of female than male core members also likely to be friends. Less than a third of members at
the group level were also best friends and over half of group members were friends. However these
patterns also varied by sex with a larger proportion of female group members being best friends
(F(1,110)=11.73; p= .001, d = .67) or friends (F(1,111)=11.70; p= .001, d = .65).
Friendship-social network overlap as a proportion of friendship.
Over a third of best friends and a quarter of friends were also core members (see Table 2). Main
effects of sex were evident for the proportion of best friends (F(1,93)=6.21; p= .015, d = .55) and
friends (F(1,118)=24.73; p< .001, d = .94) that were in the same group with the overlaps being
greater for males than females. These effects may reflect the sex differences in social network size