AIDSQuest: The HIV/AIDS Survey Library
Behavioral and Social Theories Commonly Used
in HIV Research

G. Social Network Theory

The Social Network Theory looks at social behavior not as an individual phenomenon but through relationships, and appreciates that HIV risk behavior, unlike many other health behaviors, usually directly involves two people. With respect to sexual relationships, social networks focus on both the impact of selective mixing (i.e., how different people choose with whom they mix), and the variations in partnership patterns (length of partnership and overlap). The intricacies of relations and communication within the couple (the smallest unit of the social network) is critical to understanding HIV transmission in this model. The scope and character of one’s broader social network (those who serve as reference people and who sanction behavior) are key to comprehending individual risk behavior. That is, social norms are best understood at the level of social networks.

HIV programs using this theory to guide them would investigate:

• The composition of important social networks in a community.

• The attitudes of the social networks toward safer sex.

• Whether the social network provides the necessary support to change behavior.

• Whether particular people within the social network are at particularly high risk and may put many others at risk.

Much of this information was obtained from Karusa Kiragu and Julie Pulerwitz, "Application of behavior change theory to HIV programs: Lessons learned from operations research at Horizons," unpublished manuscript, with some input from Rachel King's "Sexual behavioral change for HIV: Where have theories taken us?" June 1999.