Evaluation of social network measurement instruments

This paper evaluates the reliability and validity of network measurement instruments for measuring social support. The authors present and discuss the results from eight experiments which were designed to analyze the quality of four measurement scales: (1) binary, (2) categorical, (3) categorical with labels, and (4) line production, as well as two measurement techniques for listing alters (free recall and recognition). Reliability and validity were estimated by the true score multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) approach. Meta-analysis of factors affecting the reliability and the validity of network measurement was done by multiple classification analysis (MCA). The results show that the binary scale and the first presentation of measurement instruments are the least reliable. Surprisingly, the two data collection techniques (free recall and recognition) yield equally reliable data. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.