02.12.2022Talk by Prof. Dr. Christoph Stadtfeld

The Swiss StudentLife Study investigated the emerging social networks between first-year undergraduate students at a Swiss university. Students were mostly strangers to each other on their first day at university, but developed multidimensional and densely-knit social networks through time. These networks were associated with a number of individual outcomes, maybe most importantly their mental health and academic achievement. The talk reviews the research design, measurements, and some relevant empirical findings. It further discusses extensions to the study that were conducted at the time of COVID-19 when social interactions were limited and students were at higher risk of social isolation and lower mental health.

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