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In order to understand the interdependency between intergenerational and adult sibling relationships, a family systems perspective is applied to identify a smaller—empirically analyzable—relational unit of analysis, that is, the sibling–parent–sibling triad. Using balance theory, triadic configurations are derived that represent enhancement, compensation, and loyalty conflicts. The hypotheses are tested for three relational dimensions: support exchange, contact, and conflict. Multilevel analyses of 549 sibling–parent–sibling triads from the Netherlands Kinship Panel data show strong evidence for enhancement, whereas some indication was obtained for sibling relationships being affected by loyalty conflicts. The results underscore and substantiate interdependency between intergenerational and adult sibling relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A random effects model is proposed for the analysis of binary dyadic data that represent a social network or directed graph, using nodal and/or dyadic attributes as covariates. The network structure is reflected by modeling the dependence between the relations to and from the same actor or node. Parameter estimates are proposed that are based on an iterated generalized least-squares procedure. An application is presented to a data set on friendship relations between American lawyers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, it is shown that multilevel methods are particularly well-suited for the analysis of relations in personal networks and the changes in these relations. Justice is done to the hierarchical nested structure of the data and the resulting dependence between observations "within egos". Multilevel techniques can also give more specific insight on why personal networks change: they allow to distinguish between the influence of individual and of tie characteristics on the stability of personal networks as a whole and of specific ties within a personal network. This is illustrated by an application to changes in networks of four Dutch samples experiencing different life events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]