UC Berkeley Social Networks Study (UCNets), San Francisco Bay Area, 2015-2018

Understanding How Personal Networks Change: Wave 1 (UCNets) is the University of California Berkeley Social Networks Study, a longitudinal study with the objective of understanding how network composition changes over time as a result of life course transitions - e.g., graduation, marriage, retirement or widowhood - and how these changes are related to health status and outcomes. Using mostly addressed-based sampling from 6 San Francisco Bay Area counties, the study recruited participants in 2 age groups (cohorts) - 21-30 year-olds and 50-70 year-olds -- to maximize the possibility of experiencing a life transition. There are 3 waves of interviewing. The first interview, Wave 1, was May 2015 through January 2016. The re-interview for Wave 2 was conducted in Feb-June 2017, and Wave 3 was during Feb-May 2018. In Wave 1, the majority of respondents completed a face-to-face (FTF) survey, with the rest filling out a comparable web survey. In Wave 2 about half completed the FTF survey, and in Wave 3, about one-quarter. The survey contains items regarding households, personal networks, family milestones, employment, health status and behavior, personality and demographic characteristics.