The TAPS Project. 5: The structure of social-network data obtained from long-stay patients.

The Social Network Schedule was successfully completed on 489 (64%) of 770 long-stay patients in Friern and Claybury Hospitals and the data on 3774 social contacts of the patients subjected to log-linear modelling. This showed that the category 'confidant' was salient in understanding the data. Latent-class analysis highlighted the importance of the nature of the social interaction between patients and their contacts. In particular, non-verbal exchanges of goods and services emerged as important in creating social bonds.