Social network mediation analysis: a latent space approach

DOI10.1007/S11336-020-09736-ZzbMATH Open1476.62248arXiv1810.03751OpenAlexW3116286537WikidataQ104513965 ScholiaQ104513965MaRDI QIDQ823876FDOQ823876

Haiyan Liu, Ying Yuan, Zhi-Yong Zhang, Ick Hoon Jin

Publication date: 16 December 2021

Published in: Psychometrika (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Social networks contain data on both actor attributes and social connections among them. Such connections reflect the dependence among social actors, which is important for individual's mental health and social development. To investigate the potential mediation role of a social network, we propose a mediation model with a social network as a mediator. In the model, dependence among actors is accounted by a few mutually orthogonal latent dimensions. The scores on these dimensions are directly involved in the intervention process between an independent variable and a dependent variable. Because all the latent dimensions are equivalent in terms of their relationship to social networks, it is hardly to name them. The intervening effect through an individual dimension is thus of little practical interest. Therefore, we would rather focus on the mediation effect of a network. Although the scores are not unique, we rigorously articulate that the proposed network mediation effect is still well-defined. To estimate the model, we adopt a Bayesian estimation method. This modeling framework and the Bayesian estimation method is evaluated through a simulation study under representative conditions. Its usefulness is demonstrated through an empirical application to a college friendship network.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.03751

zbMATH Keywords

Bayesian estimationsocial network analysismediation analysisfriendship networklatent space modelingsmoking behavior

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Bayesian inference (62F15) Applications of statistics to psychology (62P15) Social networks; opinion dynamics (91D30)

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Cited In (4)

• Networks as mediating variables: a Bayesian latent space approach
• A framework for mediation analysis with massive data
• Joint Latent Space Model for Social Networks with Multivariate Attributes
• Modelling the influence of social network with a multiple group latent class analysis

Uses Software

• R
• SPSS
• SAS
• latentnet

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