Social networks and demographic outcomes

The social media has been booming for more than a decade and it has affected the lives of people to a great extent. According to eMarketer, India has seen highest growth in last year (51.7%)social media communication tools have profoundly changed our lives and how we interact with one another and the world around us. Here are the top areas that social media has affected in our daily lives. This research will focus on how demographically the social media is being consumed by teenagers with hearing disability in comparison with that of teenagers without hearing disability and how it affects consumption of news, business, interaction, sharing and influence their growth to adulthood. The focus of the research will be on visual social media & instant texting (IM), Facebook, Skype and ovoo. To find whether teenagers with and without hearing are using social media for social networking or for any other purpose and how it has affected their growth to adulthood life will be also the main objective of this study.

The mushrooming growth of squatter settlements/slums due to rapid pace of urbanization in the cities of the developing countries like Siliguri Municipal Corporation Area (SMCA) in India is the major concern for the researchers, policy makers and the governments. The area of such urban slums/squatter settlements are the place where the people struggling extremely to make a living. They also tend to suffer more from the lack of basic amenities, inadequate drainage, solid waste disposal facility, illness, infectious disease, etc. In recent times, the studies on Quality of Life (QoL) are of great importance because they demonstrate the demographic, social, and economic conditions of an urban poor particularly for squatters/slum dwellers that ranges from “bad to good”. So, the multidimensional condition of life of the urban squatters/slum dwellers needs to study the QoL to get a better understanding of their situation as well as to help the local government and other bodies for implementing, evaluating and monitoring the policies and programmes for the socio-economic development of the poor. The objective of the paper is to focus the socio-economic status and the assessment of QoL using a composite index in the inner and peripheral city squatter settlements of Siliguri Municipal Corporation Areas (SMCA). For modeling a composite inde

Poverty and social exclusion are important socio-economic variables which are often taken for granted while considering ill-health effects. Higher levels of poverty among socially excluded groups translate, as might be expected, into poorer levels of human development in terms of health. Marginalization of certain groups occurs in most societies including developed countries and is more pronounces in underdeveloped countries. In Indian context, caste and wealth index may be considered broadly as a proxy for social-economic status and poverty. The health status and utilization patterns give an indication of their social exclusion and an idea of the linkages between poverty and health. The linkages between caste, wealth index and some health indicators show that poverty is a complex issue which needs to be addressed with a multiple-dimensional paradigm. Even while considering poverty as the core issue, there is need to consider parameters beyond the exiting framework, keeping the complexities of plural systems and the diversity of social context to minimize the suffering from poverty and ill-health necessitates. There are a number of levels which need to be addressed if the linkages between poverty, health and MDGs are to be grappled.

Migration networks develop social institutions among migrants that strengthen social ties between sending and receiving regions sustaining a permanent flow of migration. However, the role of social network on migration has mainly been viewed from the point of making the move.
The present paper has focused on social networking of migrants at the place of destination and its impact on their well being as well as on their future intention to migrate. The study is based on data collected primarily from 310 northeast migrants in Mumbai city during September 2007 – February 2008. The use of proportionate quota sampling design assured fair representation of migrants from the seven states of Northeast India.
A composite index called social networking index that considers important characteristics is computed to measure social networking of northeast migrants. Result indicates that the more vulnerable migrants, be it female migrants, younger and single migrants etc. have higher social networking than married migrants, higher income etc. It is seen that migrants with greater networking intend to migrate more than migrants who are relatively less connected, showing that networking cannot be equated with well-being. The effect of social network would become negative when a larger network hinders growth or opportunities.

The structural analysis of international migration system between Brazil and the United States seeks to provide contributions to the understanding of the empirical phenomenon through the role of the mechanisms intervenient in the system. The social network analysis seeks to identify regular patterns of the positions occupied by actors and relational flows. Brazil currently has 60 million users on Facebook and their data structure allows to collect data comparable to previous studies about the structure of the social network migration. The objective of this paper is to analyze the structure of the social network migration of Governador Valadares City, from interviews with residents in the region, and to compare the results of this survey with the structure captured by overlapping the personal network of Facebook users in the same region. The first part of this analysis was based on a field research where 60 individuals were interviewed that had some relation to migration. The second step will consist in the construction of the network migration from the overlapping personal networks of Facebook users and compatibilization with the first survey. Networks measurements were produced for the first data source and it is expected that processing performed between the two sources have similarities.

The process of growing from youth to an independent adult is an exciting and positive experience. However it can be uncertain, challenging and distressing for youth persons with Orthopedic disability. The long-term outcome of their social life of such youth can be effective through social media. Young orthopedic disabled persons are more likely to be living in poverty and have poor physical and mental health; they can be socially isolated and economically inactive. The following trend of social media has created a new a platform for these youth in society to get connected to the real world and actively participate and contribute to society. Social media gives them chance to show their ability and create their niche for themselves in the field of own choice in the adult population. This research study aims at evaluating the influence of social media on the young disabled population.

This paper examines the changes that support network of the elderly undergoes as health, activity level and functional status change with age. We measure network characteristics at two points in time using the longitudinal survey of the elderly carried out in Costa Rica.
In this paper we measure the network of the elderly and flows of support at two points in time. We use social network analysis techniques to describe and measure the changes in transfers that take place within the family. For this we construct ego networks of the ties that link the elder to their immediate family or co-resident and analyze how they change as socioeconomic circumstances, health, and functional status of the person change.

While India is being considered as one of the fastest growing economy in the world, majority of population does not evenly share the benefits of development that the top decile of the population have due to the presence of widespread social inequality in education, income, health and overall development. According to UN (2004), women are equally important as men in the process of development. In this paper, women’s role in the country’s development has been studied by bringing, examining and linking the issues of social cohesion and social participation with social inequality in India. Proxy indicators have been validated to measure social cohesion. Using NFHS-3 (2005-06) data, social cohesion, social participation and social inequality have been measured from women’s perspectives. Social inequality has been used as a proxy for underdevelopment and it has been found to be linked with low social cohesion and low social participation by women. Results from bivariate and multivariate analyses show that controlling for other factors, social cohesion is found to be significantly related to social inequality among women in India. Undoubtedly, social inequality among women has strong socio-religious patterns which again turn out to be the foundation of asymmetrical development of a region.

The purpose of this paper is to both quantify women's empowerment in Egyptian context and examine whether any significant improvement in their situation has been achieved since 1995. Further, the association between women's empowerment and child health will be examined. It is argued that women with higher status are better able to make positive investments in their children's chances of living in better health. Data used in the study come from the Egypt Demographic and health surveys in 1995, 2005, and 2008. Women's empowerment is quantified using constructed indices: mobility index, attitude towards gender index, attitude towards domestic violence index, women's involvement in domestic decision making, and media exposure. The evidence suggested that women's status in Egypt is significantly changed in the period between 1995 and 2008. Further, child survival benefit from women's empowerment. Some policy implications of the findings and measurement issues pertaining to women’s empowerment are discussed.

Mixed evidence exists about social networks’ effect on older people’s disability outcomes. New emerging family patterns and relationships can have impact on old-age coping. Literature comparing native and foreign populations from the aspect of limitations and social networks among elderly has been rare. This study looks at the limitations in everyday activities of people aged 50 years and older in Estonia. Data for this analysis comes from the fourth wave SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe). We explore the relationship between social networks and disability outcome among foreign and native populations with regression analysis. The indicator of limitations in everyday activities is considered an objective disability status measurement that is also used as the basis for calculating healthy life years. Previously, migrants in Estonia have indicated worse health and disability outcomes than the native population. Our analysis indicates that Estonian foreign-origin older population has higher chance of having zero or large networks than natives. No significant differences occur between limitation levels among migrants in the number of family members one has in the network; less limited natives are more likely to have more family members in their network than severely limited or not limited older natives.