Modelling interactions among offenders: A latent space approach for interdependent ego-networks

Illegal markets are notoriously difficult to study. Police data offer an increasingly exploited source of evidence. However, their secondary nature poses challenges for researchers. A key issue is that researchers often have to deal with two sets of actors: targeted and non-targeted. This work develops a latent space model for interdependent ego-networks purposely created to deal with the targeted nature of police evidence. By treating targeted offenders as egos and their contacts as alters, the model (a) leverages on the full information available and (b) mirrors the specificity of the data collection strategy. The paper then applies this approach to analyse a real-world example of illegal markets, namely the smuggling of migrants. To this end, we utilise a novel dataset of 21,555 phone conversations wiretapped by the police to study interactions among offenders.     

Place attachment,residential satisfaction,and life satisfaction: Traditional and renewed kibbutz

Economic crisis in the early 1980s, followed by heavy debt, challenged the existence of the kibbutz. In order to prevent disintegration, rigorous privatization-related economic and structural reforms were implemented. In this study, we evaluate if these transformational changes affected the perception and emotional ties of kibbutz members. Specifically, we examined differences between traditional and renewed kibbutz in terms of life satisfaction, place attachment, and residential satisfaction. The results indicated that members of the renewed kibbutz reported higher levels of place attachment than those of the traditional kibbutz. However, no significant differences were observed for residential satisfaction and life satisfaction. Moreover, place attachment and residential satisfaction were significantly associated with life satisfaction. Finally, kibbutz type moderated the indirect effect of residential satisfaction on life satisfaction through place attachment.     

Assessing the causal relationship among communication,money management practices,satisfaction with financial status,and satisfaction with quality of life

The purpose of the study reported here is to assess the causal relationship among communication, money management practices, satisfaction with financial status, and quality of life. The data used were collected in 1986 through personal interviews. The sample size is 123 interviewees, and the unit of analysis is the household's money manager. Results show that the money managers who are more knowledgeable about financial matters, and those who are highly indebted, communicate more about money matters and report more money management activities. Satisfaction with financial status is caused mainly by economic factors (net worth and savings). The demographic factors that influence satisfaction with quality of life are marital status and household size. Satisfaction with quality of life is also predicted by income and satisfaction with financial status.This research was supported by the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station Project No. 2773 (Journal paper No. 13123).Dr. Olive Mugenda is a senior lecturer Lecturer at Kenyatta University, P. O. Box 62337, Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. Dr. Tahira K. Hira is a Professor, Department of Family Environment, Iowa State University. Dr. Alyce M. Fanslow is a Distinguished Professor, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences Education, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011.Drs. Mugenda and Fanslow received their Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State University, Dr. Hira received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia.Dr. Mugenda's research is in family financial management areas. Dr. Hira's research focuses on factors influencing satisfaction with households' financial status and consumer bankruptcy. Dr. Fanslow's research interest includes financial management education.     

A latent class analysis of resilient development among early adolescents living in public housing

The aim of this study was to identify types of early adolescents living in public housing neighborhoods based on patterns of resilient development. Informed by ecological-transactional theory, we evaluated a broad range of individual, relational, and contextual influences on resilient development among an ethnically diverse sample of 315 early adolescents (M_age = 12; 51% female) living in public housing neighborhoods. Results of a latent class analysis of 11 indicators and 2 outcome variables suggest three empirically derived classes representing overall patterns of favorable and unfavorable behavior. Daily hassles, low neighborhood cohesion, and a relaxed attitude towards substance use corresponded with a higher probability of substance use and delinquency. Significant differences in favorable behavior patterns reflecting resilient development between classes were found in attitudes towards substance use, academic efficacy, and school commitment. Results suggest important implications for preventive interventions for early adolescents living in public housing neighborhoods that are discussed.     

A comparison of simple score and latent class approaches: application to HIV knowledge data in Chinese and multi-country contexts

Knowledge about different health-related attitudes, beliefs, and risks is of significant interest to scholars in different Social Science disciplines. Usually knowledge is collected in a form of multiple variables and then constructed as a composite indicator. The question any researcher working with knowledge-related variables faces is: what is the best way to measure and summarise different dimensions of health-related knowledge? The main goal of this paper is to evaluate and compare simple score and latent class approaches to measuring and summarising health-related knowledge using population data on HIV knowledge collected in five selected countries (China, India, Kenya, Malawi, and Ukraine). The advantages and shortcomings of both approaches (simple score and latent class approaches) to measuring and summarising health-related knowledge are evaluated and discussed.     

I can’t smile without you: Spousal correlation in life satisfaction

This paper tests whether one partner’s happiness significantly influences the happiness of the other partner. Using 10 waves of the British Household Panel Survey, it utilizes a panel-based GMM methodology to estimate a dynamic model of life satisfaction. The use of the GMM-system estimator corrects for correlated effects of partner’s life satisfaction and solves the problem of measurement error bias. The results show that, for both genders, there is a positive and statistically significant spillover effect of life satisfaction that runs from one partner to the other partner in a couple. The positive bias on the estimated spillover effect coming from assortative mating and shared social environment at cross-section is almost offset by the negative bias coming from systematic measurement errors in the way people report their life satisfaction. Moreover, consistent with the spillover effect model, couple dissolution at t + 1 is negatively correlated with partners’ life satisfaction at t.     

The impact of daily weather conditions on life satisfaction: Evidence from cross-sectional and panel data

Life satisfaction has been widely used in recent years for evaluating the effect of environmental factors on individuals’ well-being. In this study, using two major health surveys in Canada, we show that after controlling for individuals’ socioeconomic characteristics as well as local and seasonal climate, temporal weather variations have an impact on satisfaction with life. This effect is identified in a number of alternative specifications. Women and individuals with poor health condition are more affected by weather conditions. Although being statistically significant, the effect of weather on life satisfaction is small compared with major socioeconomic determinants of well-being. We cannot confirm the results of past studies which find an effect of long term climate variables on life satisfaction.     

The determinants of heroin flows in Europe: A latent space approach

This study utilises recent advances in statistical models for social networks to identify the factors shaping heroin trafficking in relation to European countries. First, it estimates the size of the heroin flows among a network of 61 countries, before subsequently using a latent space approach to model the presence of trafficking and the amount of heroin traded between any two given countries. Many networks, such as trade networks, are intrinsically weighted, and ignoring edge weights results in a loss of relevant information. Traditionally, the gravity model has been used to predict legal trade flows, assuming conditional independence among observations. More recently, latent space position models for social networks have been used to analyze legal trade among countries, and, mutatis mutandis, can be applied to the context of illegal trade to count both edge weights and conditional dependence among observations. These models allow for a better understanding of the generative processes and potential evolution of heroin trafficking routes. This study shows that geographical and social proximity provide fertile ground for the formation of heroin flows. Opportunities are also a driver of drug flows towards countries where regulation of corruption is weak.     

Family identification facilitates coping with financial stress: A social identity approach to family financial resilience

Family financial stress research has typically examined negative effects of deprivation on mental health, which in turn erode financial coping. While this work acknowledges family support’s role in buffering these effects, it has typically overlooked how family identification can act to structure the experience of, and response to, economic challenge. We adopt a Social Identity approach, arguing that family identification predicts increased social support and improved well-being, which predicts more effective coping with financial problems. We explore this in two community surveys (N = 369; N = 187). In the first we show that stronger family identification and support predict better well-being, which predicts better evaluation of economic coping. In the second we replicate these findings, and also show that the relationship between well-being and financial distress is fully mediated by perceptions of ‘Collective Family Financial Efficacy’. These findings point to a more positive understanding of how family cohesion can promote mental well-being/resilience.     

Purpose and life satisfaction during adolescence: the role of meaning in life,social support,and problematic digital use

This study examined the characteristics of youth with different types of purpose in life, as well as the associations between adolescents’ life satisfaction, purpose in life, meaning in life, social support, and problematic digital use. The sample included 193 participants aged 14–18 who completed self-report questionnaires on life satisfaction, purpose in life, meaning in life, social support, and problematic digital use. The following purpose in life clusters were found: (1) other-oriented goals (n?=?33); (2) self-oriented goals (n?=?42); and (3) both other- and self-oriented goals (n?=?107). Adolescents with both self- and other-oriented goals had significantly higher life satisfaction, meaning in life, and social support compared to the other groups. Meaning in life and greater support from parents and teachers were significantly associated with greater life satisfaction. In addition, having other-oriented goals was associated with lower life satisfaction. Finally, support from parents (p?=?0.05) mediated the association between problematic digital use and life satisfaction. Findings are discussed in light of previous research and the theoretical and practical implications are examined.     

Gender and marital satisfaction early in marriage: A growth curve approach

The purpose of this study is to assess differences between husbands and wives (N= 526 couples at the first assessment) on (a) growth curves over the first 4 years of marriage for psychological distress, marriage‐specific appraisals, spousal interactions, social support, and marital satisfaction; (b) the strength of intraspouse links and cross‐spouse links involving the initial assessment of the first four variables and the growth curve for marital satisfaction; and (c) differences between spouses headed for divorce versus spouses in stable marriages on the growth curves for all five variables. On the basis of evidence that interspouse differences were largely nonsignificant, there was little support for the view that there are his and her versions of the processes that affect marital outcomes.     

Conditionally Independent Dyads (CID) network models: A latent variable approach to statistical social network analysis

Latent variable network models that accommodate edge correlations implicitly, by assuming an underlying latent factor, are increasing in popularity. Although, these models are examples of what is a growing body of research, much of the research is focused on proposing new models or extending others. There has been very little work on unifying the models in a single framework. In this paper, we present a complete framework that organizes existing latent variable network models within an integrative generalized additive model. Our framework is called Conditionally Independent Dyad (CID) models, and includes existing network models that assume dyad (or edge) independence conditional on latent variables and other components in the model. We further discuss practical aspects of model fitting such as posterior parameter estimation via MCMC, identifiability of parameters, approaches to handle missing data and model selection via cross-validation, for the proposed additive CID models. Finally, by presenting several data examples, we illustrate the utility of the proposed framework and provide advice on selecting components for building new CID models.     

The longitudinal effects of parental monitoring and self-control on depression in Korean adolescents: A multivariate latent growth approach

The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal effects of parental monitoring and self-control on depression. To address this purpose, this study investigated the interrelationships among depression, perceived parental monitoring, and self-control—as well as their developmental changes from the eighth to the twelfth grades—by repeated assessment of 3449 Korean adolescents. The data from Korea Youth Panel Survey (KYPS) of the eighth graders who were followed for five years were analyzed using latent growth modeling. The univariate latent growth models showed that adolescents experience an increase in both parental monitoring and self-control but a decline in depression over the five years. In addition, the multivariate latent growth model suggested that the initial level of parental monitoring had significant effects, both directly and indirectly through self-control, on the initial level of depression. The linear changes in parental monitoring were associated with the linear changes in self-control; likewise, the linear changes in self-control were related to those in depression. These results imply that parental monitoring and self-control need to be emphasized as a strategy in order to prevent or alleviate adolescents' depression.     

Experienced harms from substance use among college students: A latent class analysis

ABSTRACT

Many college students experience personal consequences from their own substance use as well as secondhand effects resulting from other students’ substance use. Our study identifies meaningful subgroup response patterns representing the construct of experienced harms, that is, the combined harms resulting from personal substance use and the substance use of others. In this sample six latent classes of harms experienced by participants were identified. The classes ranged from a No Harms group to a group of eleven harms – Severe Harms. We demonstrated that harms class membership was directly related to the level of involvement with substances. As the level of substance use increased – demonstrated by membership in latent classes of progressive involvement with substances – the odds of membership in a more serious experienced harms class increased. Participants reporting early onset of any substance were more likely to be members in any of the experienced harms latent classes than members of the No Harms class. Elucidating the exposure to harm associated with college student substance use behavior through an expanded focus on the patterns of experienced effects (i.e., personal consequences and secondhand effects) advances current research on a nationally-recognized problem.     

Who are in charge,who do i work with,and who are my friends: A latent space approach to understanding elite coappearances in China

How ruling elite arrange and maintain their power-sharing is key to our understanding of authoritarian politics. We analyze the dynamics of elite power-sharing in authoritarian regimes using a network framework that embeds actors onto a low-dimensional space. We also introduce a novel dataset tracking appearances of elite Chinese Community Party (CCP) members at political events. Our framework and data allow us to disentangle three key aspects of CCP elite power-sharing: (1) who are in charge, (2) who do I work with, and (3) who are my friends. Using a latent factor network analysis of approximately 10,000 appearance records of over 200 top CCP elites from 2013 to 2017, we empirically assess these three questions by computing elites’ total appearances, dyadic coappearances, and their distance in a latent social space. We test how well these three indicators fare at predicting elites’ appointments to the leading small groups (LSGs) of the CCP Central Committee and the Central Government, and from that analysis are able to highlight the need to account for the indirect ties elites share.