Statistical modelling of the group structure of social networks

Abstract

This research evaluates the identification of group structure in social networks through the latent class model and a new Bayesian model comparison method for the number of latent classes. The approach is applied to a well-known network of women in Natchez Mississippi. The latent class analysis reproduces the group structure of the women identified by the original sociologists. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.