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Studies of active personal networks have primarily focused on providing reliable estimates of the size of the network. In this study, we examine how compositional properties of the network and ego characteristics are related to variation in network size. There was a negative relationship between mean emotional closeness and network size, for both related and unrelated networks. Further, there was a distinct upper bound on total network size. These results suggest that there are constraints both on the absolute number of individuals that ego can maintain in the network, and also on the emotional intensity of the relationships that ego can maintain with those individuals. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.socnet.2008.12.002

Type

Journal article

Journal

Social Networks

Publication Date

01/05/2009

Volume

31

Pages

138 - 146