'Birds of a feather' - forever? Homogeneity in adult friendship networks through the life course

Abstract

This paper studies the changes in the homogeneity of friendship networks in terms of gender, age, and educational diversity. It is argued that through the life course, both an individual’s demand and the structural supply of similar others change. This should be reflected in the composition of friendship relations in personal networks. Rich network panel data that cover a period of 19 years are employed (The Social Survey of the Dutch, SSND). Results show that gender and educational homogeneity in friendships increases when people age, while age homogeneity remains unchanged. Notably, friendship as a relational category remains important throughout a person’s life and only few respondents report that they have no friends.