DESCRIPTION 

Friendship is recorded among students in three school classes. 

THIRD is a 22×22 non-symmetric binary matrix,

FOURTH is a 24×24 non-symmetric binary matrix and

FIFTH is a 22×22 non-symmetric binary matrix. 

The attribute file (_ATT) associated with each grade gives the sex of
each student. Boys are coded as 1, girls as 0.

BACKGROUND In 1993 Parker and Asher studied elementary school
children's friendships. They collected network data from 881 children
in 36 classrooms in the third, fourth and fifth grades in five public
elementary schools. Each child was given a roster of the children in
his or her class and was told to choose his or her 'very best friend',
three 'best friends', and an unlimited number of 'friends'.

Anderson, Wasserman and Crouch chose three of the 36 classrooms, one
from each grade. They ignored distinctions among the quality or
strength of the reported friendships and simply created one relation
reflecting friendship. Thus, if i said that j was either a 'very best
friend', 'best friend', or simply 'friend', they coded a 'friendship'
tie as being present. Their codes are the ones reported here.

REFERENCES

Anderson, C. J., S. Wasserman and B. Crouch. 1999. "A p* primer: logit
models for social networks." Social Networks 21:37-66.

Parker, J.G., Asher, S.R., 1993. "Friendship and friendship quality in
middle childhood: Links with peer group acceptance and feelings of
loneliness and social dissatisfaction." Developmental Psychology 29,
611-621.