Research on Children’s Social Networks Based on Dunbar’s Number

Abstract

In order to explore the qualitative and quantitative changes in children’s social networks, we created survey items based on Dunbar’s number, which is the number of people a person is likely to maintain relationships with. After conducting a preliminary survey of high school and university students, we administered a questionnaire survey consisting of 15 questions regarding intimacy in social networks, specifically targeting elementary to high school students. It was conducted in February and March 2021 and 1,163 elementary school children, 1,174 middle school students, and 410 high school students were surveyed. When we factor-analyzed the results, we extracted 13 items from two factors, the task of naming the first factor “relationship at the level of acquaintance” and the second factor “relationship with a sense of trust.” Furthermore, when we performed a chi-square test and residual analysis for each question based on school type, we found that for all items of the first factor, the approximate Dunbar’s number increased from 15 to 150 as the school type progressed from elementary to high school. In addition, the approximate Dunbar’s number for the second factor was around 15, with some items showing an increase and others a decrease.