  Face-to-face social interactions are an important aspect of peoples' social
lives. A lack of interactions can explain how individuals develop depressive
symptoms, but depressive symptoms can also explain how individuals engage in
social interactions. Understanding in detail how depression affects
individuals' social interaction networks is important to break this vicious
cycle of social isolation and depression. This article tackles two central
methodological challenges in understanding the micro-level mechanisms between
depressive symptoms and social interactions. The first contribution is the
application of novel data collection strategies that employ RFID sensors to
record behavioral data on interpersonal interaction, which we combine with
self-reported depressive symptoms and sociometric data on friendship relations.
The second contribution is the analysis of these data with statistical social
network methodology that allows testing hypotheses on the duration of
interactions between pairs of individuals. With this unique approach, we test
four social network hypotheses in an empirical setting of two first-year
undergraduate student cohorts (N(pairs) = 2,454, N(individuals) = 123) spending
a weekend together in a remote camp house. We conclude that depressive symptoms
are associated with (1) spending less time in social interaction, (2) spending
time with similarly depressed others, (3) spending time in pair-wise
interactions rather than group interactions, and with (4) spending more time
with reciprocal friends (but not with unilaterally perceived friends). Our
findings offer new insights into social consequences of depressive symptoms and
call for the development of social network-oriented intervention strategies to
prevent depressed individuals from being socially isolated.
