An Ego-Centric Network Study of Core Discussion Network During the Covid-19 Pandemic

This chapter uses data mined from ICAS to conduct ego-centric network analysis of students’ core discussion network. In particular, the ICAS recorded online discourses on five social issues such as school closing, facemasks, collegiate sports, race and policing, and social inequality from students taking a General Sociology class during the Fall 2020, when the class was held online. For the total 191 students who participated in the discussions, we elicit 847 conversation partners (alters) with our five social issue generators, producing an average of 4.43 alters per respondent. The core discussion groups of our sample are very gender balanced, with female alters slightly outnumbering male alters. However, the core discussion groups are racially homogenous, consisting of mostly white students (around or above 80 percent). Explanatory analyses reveal that gender and race of respondents significantly impact the size, gender composition, and racial composition of their core discussion networks. We discuss those major findings and implications of future studies in our conclusion section.