Contact, Support, and Friction

Abstract

The networks literature has been bedeviled by an assumption that networks convey supportiveness to the exclusion of conflict. In this article, we discuss a method for distinguishing conflict, support, and simple contact network linkages in surveys. We then describe the results of applying this procedure to a random sample of households in several rural areas. We find that conflict does permeate personal relations. We also find that ego's and alters' genders affect the extent and type of frictions that engage them. We conclude by discussing implications of the findings for particular lines of research on stress and on community.