Abstract
Recordings of smartphone use for contacts are increasingly being used as alternative or supplementary measurement methods for social interactions and social relations in the health sciences. Less work has been done to understand how these measures compare with widely used survey-based information. Using data from the Copenhagen Network Study, we investigated whether derived survey and smartphone measures on two widely studied concepts; Social integration and Tie strength were associated. The study population included 737 college students (mean age 21.6 years, Standard deviation: 2.6), who were followed with surveys and continuous recordings of smartphone usage over a one-month period. We derived self-reported and smartphone measures of social integration (social role diversity, social network size), and tie strength (contact frequency, duration and tie reciprocity). Logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between smartphone derived and self-reported measures adjusting for gender, age and co-habitation. Larger call and text message networks were associated with having a high self-reported social role diversity, and a high self-reported social contact frequency was likewise associated with having both frequent call and text message interactions, longer call duration and a higher level of reciprocity in call and text message communication. Self-reported aspects of social relations and smartphone measures of social interactions have considerable overlap supporting a measurement of similar underlying concepts.
Highlights
Social relations are important to human health
In order to use smartphones as measurement tools to study individual social relations, we propose to derive relevant smartphone measures of social relations based on theoretical concepts, and to further explore the content of such smartphone measures
Distributions of self-reported survey measures can be seen in S2 Table. 41.7% and 56.9% of the study population had a high social role diversity in face-to-face contact and non-face-to-face contact, respectively. 6.1% and 15.5% scored between 20–24 on the total face-to-face and non-face-to-face contact frequency summary scale, respectively. 315 individuals reported to be co-habiting with a social role where the majority of these (46%) were living with their parents
Summary
Social relations are important to human health. Both structural aspects such as network size and contact frequency as well as functional aspects such as social support has been established as important determinants of human health and well-being during the last decades [1,2,3,4,5]. Most of this evidence is based on self-reports from surveys, alternative ways of measuring social relations are emerging. Smartphones have become increasingly available and they provide a previously unthinkable framework for gaining detailed
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