Data_Sheet_2_Children’s social networks in developmental psychology: A network approach to capture and describe early social environments.docx

Psychologists are interested in understanding how early social environments impact children’s behavior and cognition. Early social environments are comprised of social relationships; however, there have been relatively few tools available to quantify the depth and breadth of children’s social relationships. We harnessed the power of social networks to demonstrate that networks can be used to describe children’s early social environments. Descriptive data from American children aged 6 months–5 years (n = 280; 47% female, 56% White) demonstrates that network properties can be used to provide a quantitative analysis of children’s early social environments and highlights how these environments vary across development. Social network methodology will provide researchers with a comprehensive picture of children’s early social experiences and improve studies exploring individual differences.

心理学家致力于探究早期社会环境对儿童行为与认知的影响。早期社会环境主要由社会关系构成；然而，可用于量化儿童社会关系深度与广度的工具相对匮乏。本研究利用社交网络的力量，证明社交网络可用于描述儿童的早期社会环境。来自美国6个月至5岁儿童（n=280；女性47%，白人56%）的描述性数据表明，网络属性可被用于对儿童早期社会环境进行量化分析，并突显了这些环境在发展过程中的差异。社交网络方法将为研究者提供儿童早期社会经验的全面图景，并提升对个体差异进行研究的质量。