Popularity breeds contempt: The evolution of reputational dislike relations and friendships in high school

In this study, we examined the dynamics of the perception of “dislike” ties (reputational dislike) among adolescents within the contexts of friendship, perceived popularity, substance use, and Facebook use. Survey data were collected from a longitudinal sample of 238 adolescents from the 11th and 12th grades in one California high school. We estimated stochastic actor-based network dynamic models, using reports of reputational dislike, friendships, and perceived popularity, to identify factors associated with the maintenance and generation reputational dislike ties. The results showed that high-status adolescents and more frequent Facebook users tended to become perceived as or stay disliked by their peers over time. There was a tendency for friendships to promote the creation and maintenance of reputational disliking but not vice versa. Adolescents tended to perceive others as disliked when their friends also perceived them as disliked. There was no evidence that either cigarette smoking or drinking alcohol affected reputational dislike dynamics. This study highlights the important role that the hierarchical peer system, online peer context, and friendships play in driving information diffusion of negative peer relations among adolescents.     

Analytic strategies for longitudinal networks with missing data

Missing data are often problematic when analyzing complete longitudinal social network data. We review approaches for accommodating missing data when analyzing longitudinal network data with stochastic actor-based models. One common practice is to restrict analyses to participants observed at most or all time points, to achieve model convergence. We propose and evaluate an alternative, more inclusive approach to sub-setting and analyzing longitudinal network data, using data from a school friendship network observed at four waves (N = 694). Compared to standard practices, our approach retained more information from partially observed participants, generated a more representative analytic sample, and led to less biased model estimates for this case study. The implications and potential applications for longitudinal network analysis are discussed.     

Fundamental principles of network formation among preschool children

The goal of this research was to investigate the origins of social networks by examining the formation of children's peer relationships in 11 preschool classes throughout the school year. We investigated whether several fundamental processes of relationship formation were evident at this age, including reciprocity, popularity, and triadic closure effects. We expected these mechanisms to change in importance over time as the network crystallizes, allowing more complex structures to evolve from simpler ones in a process we refer to as structural cascading. We analyzed intensive longitudinal observational data of children's interactions using the SIENA actor-based model. We found evidence that reciprocity, popularity, and triadic closure all shaped the formation of preschool children's networks. The influence of reciprocity remained consistent, whereas popularity and triadic closure became increasingly important over the course of the school year. Interactions between age and endogenous network effects were non-significant, suggesting that these network formation processes were not moderated by age in this sample of young children. We discuss the implications of our longitudinal network approach and findings for the study of early network developmental processes.     

Adolescent network positions and memory performance in adulthood: Evidence from sibling fixed effects models with sociometric network data

Although research has explored social factors influencing memory performance during adolescence, the impact of adolescent social network positions remains largely unknown. This study examines whether adolescent network position is associated with memory performance in adulthood, while also considering potential gender differences. The study used a sibling sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 2462) and employed sibling fixed effects models to account for unobserved family background factors, such as genetics, parental characteristics, family environment, and childhood neighborhood. Four dimensions of adolescent network position—i.e., popularity, sociality, degree centrality, and closeness centrality—were sociometrically assessed in schools. Memory performance in adulthood was measured using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. The sibling fixed effects estimates indicate that sociality, degree centrality, and closeness centrality are significantly associated with increased memory performance in adulthood, even after controlling for unobserved family heterogeneity as well as a set of individual-level covariates. In contrast, controlling for unobserved family heterogeneity attenuated the association for popularity, making it statistically insignificant. This study also provides evidence of gender differences in the association between social network position and memory performance. The associations for popularity, sociality, and degree centrality are more pronounced among men than women. This study’s findings highlight the importance of adolescent network positions as social determinants in shaping cognitive outcomes over the life course. Interventions that encourage positive peer interactions and reduce social isolation during adolescence may help improve cognitive health in the population.     

Relationship patterns in the 19th century: The friendship network in a German boys’ school class from 1880 to 1881 revisited

The article presents a friendship network from 1880 to 1881 in a school class, which goes back to the exceptional mixed-methods study of the German primary school teacher Johannes Delitsch. The re-analysis of the historic network gives insights into what characteristics defined the friendship networks in school classes in Germany at the end of the 19th century. ERGMs of the so far unmarked data show structural patterns of friendship networks similar to today (reciprocity, transitive triadic closure). Moreover we test the influence of the class ranking order (Lokationsprinzip), which allocates the pupils in the class room according to their school performance. This ranking order produces a hierarchy in the popularity of pupils, through hierarchy–congruent friendship ties going upwards in the hierarchy. In this respect, concerning the effect of school achievement on popularity, we find a strong stratification, which is not always prevalent today.     

Parents on the job market: Resources and strategies that help sociologists attain tenure-track jobs

Do women and men who have children during gradute school have access to the same institutional resources as non-parents? In the face of two gredy institutions, the academy and parenthood (especially motherhood), do they employ the same sorts of strategies in their quest to attain tenure-track jobs, and are those strategies successful? In this study we use a longitudinal survey of sociology Ph.D.s to investigate the availability and use of three types of resources and strategies during graduate school, and find that they all have important effects on the chances of obtaining a tenure-track position at a research or doctoral university. We find that someinstitutional resources are not equallydistributed in graduate school, with mother's least likely to obtain them, but are significant for attainment of tenure-track positions.Resource-based strategies, including presenting papers and publishing articles while in graduate school, have a positive and significant effect on all groups' attainment of tenure-track positions.Family-based strategies such as child-spacing strategies are also significant; women who have children during graduate school have lower odds of immediately obtaining tenure-track jobs at research and doctoral universities, although access to resources and the ability to use these resources helps significantly.     

The co-evolution of gossip and friendship in workplace social networks

This study investigates the co-evolution of friendship and gossip in organizations. Two contradicting perspectives are tested. The social capital perspective predicts that friendship causes gossip between employees, defined as informal evaluative talking about absent colleagues. The evolutionary perspective reverses this causality claiming that gossiping facilitates friendship. The data comprises of three observations of a complete organizational network, allowing longitudinal social network analyses. Gossip and friendship are modeled as both explanatory and outcome networks with RSiena. Results support the evolutionary perspective in that gossip between two individuals increases the likelihood of their future friendship formation. However, individuals with disproportionately high gossip activity have fewer friends in the network, suggesting that the use of gossiping to attract friends has a limit.     

Personal Social Networks of Women with Co-Occurring Substance Use and Mental Disorders

ABSTRACT

There has been relatively little examination of the social network resources of women with substance use disorder, and even fewer explorations of women with co-occurring mental disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. This study explores the nature of co-occurring mental disorders, social network characteristics and perceived social support in 136 women with substance use disorders. Respondents reported small personal networks that contained both supportive and non-supportive people. Relatives did provide social support, but those who used alcohol/drugs were viewed as tending to interact negatively. Women with dual disorders perceived less concrete, emotional, and sobriety support from some network relationships than the women with substance use disorders only. Implications for research and practice are presented.     

Ethnic segregation of friendship networks in school: Testing a rational-choice argument of differences in ethnic homophily between classroom- and grade-level networks

Adolescents’ school-based friendship networks tend to be segregated along ethnic lines. But few studies have examined whether variation in network boundaries affects the degree of ethnic friendship segregation. We use rational-choice theory to argue that ethnic homophily is more pronounced for friendships between classrooms than for those within classrooms. We empirically test this hypothesis using two-wave German panel data (N = 1258) and stochastic actor-oriented models (RSiena). In line with our theoretical argument, we find that the tendency to form same-ethnic friendships is indeed stronger at the grade level, which translates into stronger ethnic segregation in friendship networks at the grade level than at the classroom level. Implications for research on ethnic segregation in school-based friendship networks are discussed.     

How do new members affect the relationship between principal investigator’s network position and academic output of granted funds?

The paper focuses on how to improve academic output of a granted fund when the adding of new members changes principal investigator’s network position. This objective is refined by exploring how new members affect the relationship between principal investigator’s network position and the academic output of granted funds, and whether this effect is similar in high-output and low-output collaboration networks. New members are divided into two groups, namely, international collaboration and inbound mobility. Using negative binomial regression on research funds supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the results indicate that new members indeed have moderating effects on the relationship between principal investigator’s network position and the academic output of granted funds. Moreover, we find that this moderating effect in high-output collaboration networks is larger than that in low-output collaboration networks. Our findings provide practical implications for the decision makers to design funding planning and for the principal investigators to improve academic output.     

Substance misuse amongst young people in non‐school settings: challenges to practitioners and policy makers

Over the past two decades the levels of substance misuse amongst children and young people have increased at a global level generally and within the UK in particular. Some school aged young people are considered to be at an increased risk to substance misuse, particularly those outside mainstream school. However, the literature on substance use by these young people remains comparatively limited. This paper explores this issue through an investigation of cannabis use trends amongst the High Risk Booster Sample of the Belfast Youth Development Study, a longitudinal study of adolescent substance use. It focuses upon the cannabis use patterns of young people excluded from school and those attending Emotional and Behavioural Difficulty units from the age of 11–16 years, groups who are historically categorised as vulnerable to substance misuse. The experience of these young people provides evidence to highlight the contemporary challenges facing policy makers and practitioners when addressing substance use and misuse use amongst these young people. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

School Dropout as Predicted by Peer Rejection and Antisocial Behavior

This longitudinal study assessed the prediction of school dropout from measures of antisocial behavior, social preference, and achievement. The sample was assessed at 8th grade (n= 516) and was expanded at 10th grade (n= 1157). In the 8th, but not 10th grade, rejected–antisocial students had higher dropout rates than those in other groups. Seperate logistic regression analyses were then conducted using the 8th‐ and 10th‐grade data. Across both sets of analyses, aggression and achievement, but not social preference, predicted subsequent dropout. These results, in conjunction with those of others, suggests that social preference does not uniquely predict school dropout. The possibility exists, however, that youth who are both antisocial and rejected may be at heightened risk for school dropout.     

Parent training to reduce problem behaviors over the transition to high school: Tests of indirect effects through improved emotion regulation skills

Adolescent problem behaviors are costly for individuals and society. Promoting the self-regulatory functioning of youth may help prevent the development of such behaviors. Parent-training and family intervention programs have been shown to improve child and adolescent self-regulation. This study helps fill gaps in knowledge by testing for indirect effects of the Common Sense Parenting® (CSP) program on reduced substance use, conduct problems, and school suspensions through previously identified short-term improvements in parents' reports of their children's emotion regulation skills. Over two cohorts, 321 low income families of 8th graders were enrolled and randomly assigned to either the standard CSP program, an adapted CSP Plus program, or a minimal-contact control condition. Pretest, posttest, 1-year follow-up, and 2-year follow-up survey assessments were completed by parents and students with 94% retention. Intent-to-treat multivariate path analyses were conducted. Neither intervention had statistically significant total effects on the three targeted adolescent outcomes. CSP, but not CSP Plus, had statistically significant indirect effects on reduced substance use and school suspensions at the 1-year follow-up as well as conduct problems and school suspensions at the 2-year follow-up through increased child emotion regulation skills at posttest. Findings provide some support for emotion regulation as one pathway through which the intervention was associated, indirectly, with reduced substance use, conduct problems, and school suspensions among at-risk students over the high school transition.     

Victimization at school and attitides toward violence among early adolescents (1)

Previous research and theory on the impact of criminal victimization upon attitudes toward defensive violence are inconsistent, both within the school context and in society at large. While theory suggests that victims may become more positive toward defensive violence because of their victimization experiences, the data are inconclusive. One flaw in prior research is its cross‐sectional nature. This research utilizes a longitudinal design in which change in attitudes toward violence from 6th to 7th grade is compared to victims and non‐victims of robbery and theft at school. There is no difference in the pattern of change for victims and non‐victims, although both groups become more approving of interpersonal violence as they move from the 6th to the 7th grades.     

Offending,Substance Use,and Cohabitation in Young Adulthood1

Over half of young adults have cohabited, but relatively little is known about the role delinquency and substance use play in youths’ odds of cohabiting as well as the implications of cohabitation for early adult offending and substance use. This study focuses on the reciprocal relationship between cohabitation during late adolescence and young adulthood and self‐reported offending and substance use. Using longitudinal data, we find that net of traditional predictors, delinquency involvement is associated with increased odds of cohabitation and cohabiting at younger ages while substance use is not related to cohabiting during early adulthood. Further analysis indicates that cohabitation is associated with lower reports of substance use. However, cohabitation is not associated with self‐reported offending. The results help unravel the connection between cohabitation experience, offending and substance use, and early adult outcomes.     

Developmental Outcomes of School Attachment Among Students of Mexican Origin

We used a longitudinal community study of 674 grade school children (Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8; 337 males, 337 females) of Mexican origin to examine outcomes of school attachment. Attachment to school is important in this population given the high level of school dropout rates of Mexican‐origin students. Results indicated that, on average, school attachment from fifth to sixth grade remains stable, but declines from sixth to eighth grade. Boys had lower levels of school attachment at fifth grade but followed similar patterns of change as girls did. Attachment to teachers, peer competence, school aspirations and expectations, and substance‐use cognitions emerged as longitudinal outcomes of level or changes in school attachment. Gender moderated associations of school attachment.     

Examining Racial Differences in the Effects of Substance Abuse on High School Students' Academic Achievement

Abstract

Many studies document racial disparities in the American educational system, finding that white students generally outperform black students. Researchers justifiably focus on structural explanations for such disparities, but generally pay less attention to more proximate influences on academic achievement. However, studies have found that substance use negatively impacts adolescent academic achievement; other findings on race and substance use suggest that this relationship could be more damaging for black students. This paper uses National Education Longitudinal Study data to determine if substance use negatively impacts the academic achievement of high school students, and if black students are more negatively affected than whites. The analysis finds that substance use has a negative impact on academic achievement, even while controlling for a range of known influences on academic achievement. However, this relationship is not found to be more damaging to black students, probably due to white students' higher level of substance use.     

Network unfolding

Networt unfolding is a measurement model for representing relational dta by a connected and weighted graph. If the data — partial or complete rank orders — can be represented by such a graph then the complete graph yields a representation. However, our aim is to minimize the number of lines in the representation and to find a maximally reduced graph. The maximally reduced graph for a specific set of a data may not be a tree but may contain one or more cycles. THe scale level of the weights is at least that of an ordered metric scale.Four examples are provided to illustrate the model and the algorithm to find the reduce graph. The first example serves to introduce the terms and notations and represents the similarity of Apachean languages. The communication network of the second example on the network structure of exchange of positive messages as a directed graph. In the third example on the network structure of human associative memory we show by means of Monte Carlo study that the obtained reduction of the graph is larger than to be expected by chance, and infer that the structure is different from that assumed by Anderson and Bower. In the fourth example on popularity status we conceive status as a social agreement structure.We consider network unfolding to be an alternative to other models of strucuture as, e.g. multidimensional scaling, cluster, and factor analysis. Substantial theory should guid the selection among these models.