In addition to constructing personal community diagrams during the initial interview, the women revisited their personal community diagrams during the second (six months later) and third (after a further twelve months) interviews. This enabled them to add members and to document any changes in their personal communities. Appendix 15 outlines the women’s personal community diagrams at stages one, two and three. Twenty-five of the original twenty-six women took part in the interviews at stage two and twenty-one at stage three (see Chapter 3). Size of personal communities
The number of people included in personal community diagrams during the second interview ranged from eight in the smallest personal community to forty- five in the largest. The average number of personal community members at the second stage of interviews was twenty-three, the median twenty-six, and the mode twenty. Therefore if we take this to be an average size personal community,
personal communities with fewer members than twenty are described as small and those with more than twenty-six large. The distribution of personal community size in the sample at the second stage of interviews is as follows:
Small <20 10 Average 20-26 5 Large >26 10
The number of people included in personal community diagrams during the third interviews ranged from ten in the smallest personal community to forty-seven
stage of interviews was twenty-five, the median twenty-nine, and the mode twenty- four. Therefore if we take this to be an average size personal community, personal communities with fewer members than twenty-four are described as small and those with more than twenty-nine large. The distribution of personal community size in the sample at the third stage of interviews is a follows:
Small <24 10 Average 24-29 4 Large >29 7
In addition to gaining members some of the women lost members of their personal community, five women had lost six members overall by the second interview, these included friends and a vicar. By the third interview eight of the women had lost ten members overall, these included a sibling, friends and a neighbour. Table 5.1 illustrates the average number of personal community members at stages one, two and three overall. Table 5.2 illustrates these by personal community type.
Table 5.1 Average number of personal community members at stages one, two and three
Average number Of members
Stage one Stage two Stage three Mean Median Mode 20 23 17 23 26 20 25 29 24
As can be seen from Table 5.1 there was an increase in members overall in the sample between stages one, two and three. Table 5.2 illustrates modest increases in the ‘family only’ and ‘concentrated family’ types, and the ‘mixed with family centrality’ type remains relatively stable over the three stages. More significant increases are apparent in the ‘diluted family’, ‘friend with family centrality’ and ‘friend with mixed centrality’ types, the anomalous personal community also increased significantly in size.
Table 5.2 Average number of personal community members at stages one, two and three by type
Average (mean) number of members by type
Stage one Stage two Stage three
Family only 7 9 10 Concentrated family 21 22 23 Diluted family 21 27 30 Friend with family centrality 18 22 25 Friend with mixed centrality 20 27 34 Mixed with family centrality 26 25 26 Anomaly 22 31 46
Composition of personal communities
During the second interview twelve of the women added family members to their personal community diagrams, with twenty-three family members being added overall. These consisted of siblings, nieces, grandchildren, great-
community diagrams: sixty-two friends were added overall. Two of the women added three others overall, including neighbours and a day centre manager.
At the third interview five women added family members to their personal community diagrams. Ten family members were added overall. These comprised grandchildren, great-grandchildren, brothers-in-law, an ex son-in-law and great- nieces. Eight of the women added friends to their personal community diagrams, thirty-one friends were added overall. One of the women added three others (neighbours). Table 5.3 illustrates the composition of diagrams by family, friends and others at stages one, two and three.
Table 5.3 Composition of diagrams at stages one, two and three
Number of
members overall
Stage one Stage two Stage three
Family 251 274 284
Friends 193 255 286
Others 69 72 75
As can be seen from Table 5.3 family and friends make up the majority of members of personal communities throughout the three stages. Most family
members and others were added during the initial interview. Although most friends were also added during the initial interview, friends were added during the second and third interviews in greater numbers than family or others.
Centrality and balance of personal community members
Members were added to the circles of the women’s personal community diagrams during the second and third interviews as follows:
Inner circle
Six of the women added members to the inner circle of their personal community diagrams during the second interview. These included three
stepchildren, nine grandchildren, one great-grandchild, three cousins, and one friend. Four of the women added members to the inner circle of their personal community diagrams during the third interview. These included one grandchild, three great-grandchildren, and one friend.
Middle circle
Thirteen of the women added members to the middle circle of their personal community diagrams during the second interview. These included one brother, one sister-in-law, one aunt, one niece, two great-grandchildren, forty friends, one day-centre manager, and one neighbour. Six of the women added members to the middle circle of their personal community diagrams during the third interview, including three great-nieces, one ex-son-in-law and twenty-two friends. Outer circle
Nine of the women added members to the outer circle of their personal community diagrams during the second interview. These included one cousin, twenty-one friends and one neighbour. Five of the women added members to the outer circle of their personal community diagrams during the third interview, including two brothers-in-law, eight friends and three neighbours.
The composition of the women’s personal community diagrams at stages two and three suggest that family continue to form the most intimate of the women’s social ties, with friends and others appearing more frequently as secondary ties in the less close and important middle and outer circles of the
Table 5.4 Centrality of ties at stages one, two and three
Number of ties by centrality
Stage one Stage two Stage three
Inner circle 252 (Family 206) (Non-family 46) 272 (Family 226) (Non-family 46) 277 (Family 230) (Non-family 47) Middle circle 156 (Family 40) (Non-family 116) 201 (Family 49) (Non-family 152) 227 (Family 52) (Non-family 175) Outer circle 105 (Family 4) (Non-family 101) 128 (Family 5) (Non-family 123) 141 (Family 5) (Non-family 136)
As can be seen from Table 5.4 most ties were added to personal
community diagrams during the initial interview. Only twenty intimate ties, those appearing in the inner circles of diagrams, were added at stage two and only five at stage three. Overall secondary ties, those appearing in the middle and outer circles of diagrams, make up the majority of personal community members and were added in greater numbers than intimate ties during stages two and three. This suggests that the ‘core’ of personal community members were included initially during stage one.