Friendship Networks Research Articles

Effect of Centrality on Physical Activity in Late Childhood: A 1-Year Prospective Cohort Study.

Engaging in physical activity (PA) is crucial for children's physical and mental health, with PA in childhood influencing lifelong activity levels. However, PA during childhood tends to decrease with age. Childhood friendship networks influence various health behaviors, including physical activity. Centralities are objective measures of an individual's position and role in friendship networks. The relationship between centrality and PA is inconsistent. This study aimed to determine how centrality affects changes in PA in late childhood longitudinally and to investigate the distribution of centrality in the network. This prospective cohort study recruited fourth- and fifth-grade children (9-11 years old). A total of 143 children participated. We calculated three centralities-in-degree, closeness, and betweenness-based on social network analysis (SNA). PA was assessed using the physical activity questionnaire for older children (PAQ-C). To explore the relationship between centralities and the percentage change in PA, a multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed. Children with higher closeness had a significantly higher rate of decrease in PA after adjusting for confounding factors. There was no significant association between betweenness and percentage change in PA (p = 0.66) or in-degree and percentage change in PA (p = 0.21). This study highlights the importance of considering social network dynamics in PA interventions, particularly for children with high social closeness. Future research should incorporate objective PA measures and explore broader social networks to enhance intervention strategies, especially for Generation Z and Alpha, who experience unique opportunities and motivations for PA due to pervasive digital environments.

Motivations for Methamphetamine (Mkpurummiri) Use and Consequences Among Nigerian Users

Media reports show that methamphetamine use is growing in Nigeria, but there is a paucity of empirical research that examines the motivations for, and consequences of, using the drug. In this study, we explored motivations or reasons for methamphetamine use and implications among 18 users and service providers. We analysed the data thematically to generate themes. The findings show that while most users initiated methamphetamine use in friendship networks, drug dealing also facilitated the initiation. Some participants were motivated to use methamphetamine to stay awake at night and engage in online businesses, while others used the drug to enhance their energy for manual work to improve productivity and enhance sexual drive, performance and pleasure. Although participants believed that methamphetamine use performed some functions, they reported its adverse effects on them and their friends, including irritation, hostility, extreme violent behaviour, delusion, psychiatric disorders, and inability to urinate or defecate for seven days. Additional findings showed that stigma is a prominent barrier to accessing treatment. Therefore, individuals do not use treatment facilities until their condition deteriorates. The findings suggest the need for the urgent provision of information to deter people from methamphetamine uptake and to provide interventions and pathways to treatment that will protect people who use methamphetamine from stigmatisation and other forms of discrimination.

Social Network and Organizational Power Distance: A Mixed Method Research on Academic Staff

In the study, which was carried out to compare the perception of organizational power distance of the academic staff working at the university with the social networks they established with their colleagues at the university, the quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis processes were carried out simultaneously using the Convergent Parallel Design, one of the mixed methods research designs, and the results of the data analysis were integrated. This research compares the organizational power distance perceptions of the faculty members working at A University, a public university in Turkey, with the social networks they have established with their colleagues at the university. In the quantitative dimension of the research carried out with the mixed method, the research population consists of 1848 academic staff working at A University, one of the public universities in Turkey, in the 2020-2021 academic year. The research sample consists of 319 academic staff. 385 academic staff from 30 academic units, 14 faculties, and 16 colleges/vocational schools, were included in the research. In the qualitative dimension of the research, 27 of 34 academic staff working in the C Department of the B Faculty of the A University were included in the study group. Convergent Parallel Design was used in the research; within this context, the quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis processes were carried out simultaneously and the data analysis results were integrated. The quantitative data were analyzed with the SPSS 21 program, the participants' views on organizational power distance were analyzed with the MAXQDA 2022 program, and social network analysis data were analyzed with the UCINET 6.0 program. According to the research findings' conclusion, the academic staff's general social network tendencies in the quantitative dimension were high, and the participants had the highest perception of "liking to connect." It was determined that the academic staff's general organizational power distance perceptions were at a moderate level, and the participants had the highest perception of "acquiescence of power." Another conclusion was that the social network tendencies of academic staff did not differ according to the academic title variable. However, the organizational power distance differed significantly in favor of research assistants. It was revealed that there was no statistically significant relationship between the general social network tendencies of the academic staff and their perception of organizational power distance. In the qualitative dimension of the study, it was observed that the participants expressed their opinions on organizational power distance mostly in terms of accepting power and least in terms of consenting to power. Social network analysis revealed that the professional network had a denser structure than the friendship network, but the friendship network had more structured and stronger ties. In social networks, professors and research assistants were found to be at the center of the network. The study observed that the results of quantitative and qualitative data analysis confirmed each other at many points. This study is expected to contribute to the literature, policymakers in higher education management, university senior management, academics, and researchers.

Multiplicities and fluidity in the networked relationships of migrant academics in Britain

AbstractIncreasing internationalization and marketization of higher education, global research collaboration, and staff mobility place academics' networking practices at the centre of higher education systems. Migrant academics are conceptualized with different network types including personal, local and transnational family and friendship networks. However, this research aims to understand the boundaries between different types of participants' networked relationships. The data of this paper comes from a larger research project on transnational family relationships of migrant academics conducted between 2018 and 2022. Life story interviews with 45 migrant academics from 27 different national backgrounds working at British universities were conducted. Additionally, sociogram maps are used as embedded in qualitative interviews. Migration background (as European or non‐European countries); gender; age; the length of the stay in the UK; academic position/contract type; annual income level and marital/relationship status were considered while forming the sample. The findings reveal that network forms and structures do not determine the resources and benefits of relationships; rather, individuals' actions over a time period and the meanings they attribute shape the positions of an alter (other actors that the focal person have connection with) within the personal network structure. As such, actions and meanings regarding those actions can bring one forward or backward in the personal network hierarchy. The boundaries regarding the content of these networks are usually blurred in relation to time, relationality and human agency attributing specific sets of meanings to certain relationships. The findings of this research translate into specific contributions to the discussions in migration and social network research. That is, research findings emphasized that different types of networks shaping participants' lives and migratory experiences are far from being stable and fixed, rather, they are characterized by being transmissive and dynamic. It is revealed that none of the network categories are homogenous, stable and fixed in terms of the content of the relationships. This adds to Emirbayer and Goodwin's (1994) discussions around the ‘form’ and the ‘content’ of networks. This paper underscores the significance of the historical settings, dynamism and the content of each relationship in understanding individual networks.

Kilómetro 0: inicio de las trayectorias migratorias de trabajadoras domésticas en Chile

This study aims to describe how the migratory trajectories of migrant domestic workers begin in Chile and the role of migratory networks and emotional factors in their decisions. A qualitative analysis of six biographical narratives is employed to examine the complexities of their labor and migratory trajectories, influenced by intersecting factors such as gender, class, and ethnicity, within the context of global care chains. The results reveal five central moments when making the decision to migrate. The first moment is characterized by the fact that none of the cases had worked as domestic workersin their home countries. In the second moment, the need to change their circumstances in their home countries arises, often due to political crises, economic challenges, or gender-based violence. The third moment involves the existence of a migratory network of friends and family who assist in their journey.In the fourth moment, a significant emotional factor plays a central role in the decision to migrate, influencing the timing of the decision. Finally, in the fifth moment, the decision to migrate to Chile is made.

Friendship Social Support Networks of African Americans

ABSTRACT Friends are crucial for companionship, sharing personal thoughts and feelings, and are positively associated with psychological well-being and mental health. This is one of the first studies to provide an in-depth investigation of social support networks of African American friendship. Using a nationally representative sample of African American adults drawn from the National Survey of American Life, this study investigated sociodemographic correlates, as well as expanded information on marital status and life circumstances of friendships. Additionally, we examined the interrelationships among several aspects of friendship. The findings indicate that, apart from income and region, all other correlates (i.e. age, gender, education, marital status, material hardship, military service, incarceration history, parental status, and urbanicity) were significantly associated with involvement in friendship support networks (i.e. subjective friendship closeness, frequency of contact with friends, frequency of receiving support from friends, and frequency of providing support to friends). Moreover, subjective closeness to friends was positively associated with friend contact, and both subjective closeness to and contact with friends were positively associated with supportive exchanges with friends. These findings indicate the importance of understanding the life circumstances and contexts within which friendships occur and the need for much more quantitative and qualitative research on African American friendships.

Selection, Socialization and Stable Networks

When individuals make decisions or choose behaviors, they are affected by the decisions or behaviours of their friends. In turn, individuals often choose their friend based on similarities in these decisions and behaviours. Kandel (1978) provide emprical evidence that these aspects are present in friendship networks and refers them as socialization and selection, respectively. In this paper, we consider a model of friendship network which reflects both aspects. To capture socialization, we consider a network game where agents with different types choose an action on a certain behaviour to coordinate their action both with their type and actions of friends in network. Agent, then, decide their friends based on the utility of network game under unique Nash equilibrium. We show certain class of networks are pairwise stable.

Impact of Free Fire Online Games on the Social Behaviorof Class 4 Students of SDN 1 Cipanas Bandung Barat

This research aims to explore the impact of playing the online game Free Fire on the social behavior of grade 4 students at SDN 1 Cipanas, West Bandung. By using descriptive research methods with a qualitative approach, this research revealed that several students experienced an addiction to playing online games which had an impact on various aspects of their behavior. Some of the changes observed include increased emotionality, inability to obey rules, and lack of manners due to the habit of speaking harshly while playing games. This research also found that students more often play games outside the school environment, with the main motivation coming from the excitement and feeling of wanting to win that they get from the game. Although there are several positive impacts such as increasing focus, foreign language skills, and expanding friendship networks, the more dominant negative impacts are seen on students' social behavior, such as irritability, lack of healthy social interactions, and difficulty in managing study time. This research suggests several efforts to overcome this addiction, including limiting playing time, finding new hobbies, and placing gaming devices outside the bedroom.

The influence of friends' person-organization fit during recruitment.

Although recruitment and perceptions of fit are inherently social-as they reflect the interactions between applicants and recruiting firms-applicants' social networks during recruitment can exert both positive and potentially negative consequences for subsequent applicant perceptions and behaviors. In this study, we examine the role of applicants' friends' perceptions of fit with the same recruiting organizations. Integrating ideas from social information processing theory and the person-organization (P-O) fit literature, we argue that friends' P-O fit perceptions drive social learning and social influence processes for applicants, thus predicting applicant perceptions and behaviors toward recruiting firms. In addition, we posit that the direct and indirect relationships between friends' P-O fit perceptions and applicants' own fit perceptions and job choices with recruiting firms are further strengthened by how centrally connected applicants are within their friend networks. Using a sample of 576 applicant-firm observations from 178 job applicants, we found that friends' P-O fit perceptions are positively related to applicant P-O fit perceptions and job choice decisions. Furthermore, applicants' position in their network-assessed via applicants' outdegree centrality within their friend group-strengthened the relationship between friends' P-O fit and applicant P-O fit as well as with their job choice decisions. Our research provides important theoretical and empirical findings on the influence of applicants' friends during recruitment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Gendered Influence of Cross-Gender Friends on the Development of Adolescents’ Gender Role Attitudes

Gender role attitudes have important implications at the individual, family, and societal levels, underscoring the importance of understanding their development. Although parents predominate in the socialization of gender role attitudes in childhood, the influence of friends increases during adolescence. In particular, cross-gender friends can provide unique insights and perspectives on another gender group, making them likely to shape gender role attitudes. However, empirical explorations of the link between gender role attitudes and cross-gender friendships have been rare. Furthermore, the few studies conducted have yielded ambiguous results and have struggled to separate the influence of cross-gender friends from a selection of such friendships based on gender role attitudes. This study addresses these limitations by using longitudinal social network models to assess the co-evolution of friendship networks and gender role attitudes among 3,194 youth (Mage = 15.2, SD = 0.67, 51% female) in German schools. The findings reveal that, after accounting for selection processes, boys with cross-gender friends develop more egalitarian gender role attitudes, while girls’ attitudes are unaffected by cross-gender friendships. These findings suggest that promoting cross-gender friendships among adolescent boys holds the potential to foster egalitarian gender role attitudes.

Peers and value preferences among adolescents in school classes: a social network and longitudinal approach

The aim of our study was twofold: (1) to explore the role of value preferences on peer relations in school classes (selection effect) and (2) to explore the role of peers’ values on adolescents’ values (influence or socialization effect) in three types of networks (friendship, advice, and trust). To answer these questions, we used a longitudinal social network approach in a study of N = 903 adolescents (57% girls) from 34 secondary school classes in Poland. Pupils began participating in the study when they joined their secondary school and were followed over two and a half years. Panel data were collected at six measurement time points during this period. Values were conceptualized according to the values theory proposed by Schwartz and measured by the Portrait Value Questionnaire. The collection of network data followed a roster design. Pupils were asked to evaluate the strength of their friendships, as well as the frequency with which they approached peers to ask for advice about school or homework or to talk about things that are important to them in the last 2 weeks. We found empirical support for both selection and socialization effects, especially for protection values (Conservation and Self-enhancement). The selection effect was most evident in advice and trust networks and the socialization effect was particularly prevalent in friendship and trust networks.

How the size and structure of egocentric networks change during a life transition

While social networks are typically relatively stable in size over time, major changes in life circumstances can result in opportunities to acquire new friends. How young adults manage their relationships with their wider network of friends and family during such transitions is, however, not well understood. Using a prospective longitudinal design, we investigate changes in the size and composition of complete egocentric networks of two cohorts of young adults moving away from home to college. We show that, although networks grow rapidly due to an influx of new friends made at college, the social overload that would result is partially mitigated through the progressive loss of pre-transition friendships (but not family relationships). In addition, most of the new relationships are placed in the outermost, emotionally less close network layers that are less costly to maintain. In contrast, the more intimate inner layers of the network remain stable in size, with efforts being made to conserve these relationships. The overriding importance of face-to-face interaction in creating and maintaining ties (compared to digital media) results in the emotional quality of a tie being traded off against the constraints imposed by physical distance. The most reliable predictor of the proportion of original members with whom relationships were maintained post-transition was pre-transition network size, with weaker effects due to geographical proximity and personal popularity in the new social context. These findings have implications for managing transitions to a new environment at any life stage.

Friends, followers, peers, and posts: adolescents' in-person and online friendship networks and social media use influences on friendship closeness via the importance of technology for social connection

IntroductionWith the proliferation of smartphones, social media access and use is ubiquitous. As such, many adolescent friendships now comprise both in-person and online contexts. Our paper explores the relationship between these contexts in two parts: the first is an exploratory comparison of in-person and online friendship networks with peers at school using descriptive social network analysis; the second, an investigation of how the use of different social media platforms relates to the importance placed on social media for connectedness and friendship closeness.MethodsParticipants were 547 adolescents (M = 15.25 years, 52% male, 55% white) from six schools in Southern Ontario, Canada. Participants completed a peer nomination survey on their relationships with peers at school and a self-report survey on social media use.ResultsWhile in-person and online networks are largely overlapping, there are important differences between the two. Results from the path analyses suggest that length of cell phone usage, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube were positively associated with the importance placed on technology for social connection and that this importance was also positively associated with feelings of friendship closeness. Daily cell phone usage, Instagram, and Snapchat use were positively indirectly associated with friendship closeness through the importance of technology for social connection.DiscussionOur findings also suggest slight gender differences, with daily time spent on a smartphone only significantly positively associated with the importance of technology for social connection for girls. Implications for future study are discussed.

Socio-structural determinants of physical activity behavior in children and adolescents: The importance of social support

The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of socio-structural determinants of physical activity (PA) behavior in children and adolescents. We expected that socioeconomic status, social support, and physical environment influence PA directly while socioeconomic status also has an indirect influence via social support and physical environment. Cross-sectional data from the German Motorik-Modul study (MoMo) were used (Wave 2, 2014–2017). The sample consisted of N = 2134 children and adolescents aged 6–17 years. Socioeconomic status, social support, and physical environment were measured by questionnaires. To measure PA, children and adolescents were instructed to wear accelerometers for seven consecutive days. Moderate-to-vigorous activity periods were considered. Path analyses were used to analyze the direct and indirect effects. We calculated two models, one for children (6–10 years) and one for adolescents (11–17 years). Among children (model 1), only social support had a direct effect on PA behavior. In addition, social support influenced the perceived physical environment. Socioeconomic status had an indirect effect on PA via social support. For adolescents (model 2), all assumed relations were significant and in line with the directions expected. Social support had the strongest direct influence on PA behavior. Socioeconomic status had a direct and indirect effect on PA via the physical environment and social support. The study results emphasize the relevance of close, social networks of families and friends as well as social capital, as a source of social support, for PA levels among young age groups.

Friendship Network and School Socialization Correlates of Adolescent Ethnic-Racial Identity Development.

Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) development is consequential for youth adjustment and includes exploration, resolution, and affect about the meaning of one's ethnic-racial group membership. Little is known about how identity-relevant experiences, such as ethnic-racial socialization and discrimination in peer relationships and school contexts, catalyze adolescent ERI development. The present study examines how identity-relevant experiences in friend and school contexts (i.e., proportion of same-ethnoracial friends, cultural socialization among friends, friends' ERI dimensions, friends' experiences of ethnoracial discrimination, and school promotion of cultural competence and critical consciousness) are associated with ERI development. A multivariate path model with a sample from four southwestern U.S. schools (N = 717; 50.5% girls; Mage = 13.76; 32% Latinx, 31.5% Multiethnic, 25.7% White, 11% other) was used to test these associations. Findings showed that friend and school predictors of ERI did not differ between early and middle adolescents, but significant differences and similarities emerged in some of these associations between ethnoracially minoritized and White youth. Specifically, friend cultural socialization was positively associated with ERI exploration for ethnoracially minoritized youth only, whereas school critical consciousness socialization was positively linked with ERI exploration only for White youth. Friend cultural socialization and friend network's levels of ERI resolution were positively associated with ERI resolution across both ethnoracial groups. These friend and school socialization associations were documented above and beyond significant contributions of personal ethnoracial discrimination to ERI exploration and negative affect for both ethnoracially minoritized and White youth. These findings expand our understanding of how friend and school socialization mechanisms are associated with adolescent ERI development, which is vital to advancing developmental theory and fostering developmental competences for youth to navigate their multicultural yet socially stratified and inequitable world.

Belonging, care, and support: findings from Ottawa’s healthy end of life project

ABSTRACT With a rapidly aging population, Canada has a growing need for public health palliative care services. End of life care, including palliative care, is holistic in nature, paying attention to the physical, psychological, social-cultural, and spiritual needs of the person who is dying and their networks of friends, family, and caregivers. Public health approaches to palliative care work to strengthen community capacities to provide care in tandem with medical and social services. This study reports on the findings of the Healthy End of Life Project (HELP Ottawa), a 4.5-year community-based research project, to demonstrate the importance of including faith communities in public health palliative care initiatives. Focusing on Christian faith communities, this article explores how faith communities can best build the capacity to offer, ask for, and accept support for members who are living with advanced illness, caregiving, or grieving.

Latent Variable Modeling of Social Networks with Directional Relations: An Exploration of Profile Similarity of Latent Factors

Statistical analysis of networks has gained increasing popularity in social and psychological sciences. This study introduces a latent variable model for self-reported directional relations within social networks, specifically focusing on predicting relationships based on actor attributes and latent traits. In a directional relation, the initiator is termed the “sender,” and the recipient is the “receiver.” Traditional symmetric similarity measures, such as Mahalanobis distance, often fall short of capturing the nuanced impact of sender and receiver latent traits in these scenarios. To overcome this limitation, we propose four distinct measures of trait similarity ( p sender , p receiver , m sender , and m receiver ), aiming to discern subtle distinctions between the impact of senders and receivers characteristics on the perceived social relations. We demonstrate the applicability and relevance of these measures in real-world network scenarios by applying our proposed framework to analyze a college friendship network. Among competing models, our findings affirm a potential non-linear trend between personality similarity and perceived friendship. Notably, the quadratic model with m receiver ( Q 8 ) outperformed others, exhibiting both significant linear and quadratic terms. Our results underscore the significance of the projected components of the receiver’s personality along with the sender’s orientation, with larger and smaller components both indicating a higher probability of perceived friendship.

‘Under the magnolia tree, our youth’: an autoethnography on friendship and sisterhood among female international doctoral students in New Zealand

ABSTRACT This paper demonstrates how my friendship with three other female Vietnamese doctoral students in New Zealand grew into an ‘academic sisterhood’ which was forged as an emplaced form of sociality that encouraged solidarity among us. As four female Vietnamese PhD students in New Zealand who shared intersecting identities as Vietnamese temporary migrants, women, mothers, and PhD students, we provided support for and learned from each other. The sisterhood strengthened my sense of belonging to both my home and host countries, and created a learning space for myself. I argue that the academic sisterhood was far more complexly imagined and meaningful than simple bonding networks of co-ethnic friendships, embracing the mixed emplaced and transnational nature of my friendship.

A Paradox of School Social Organization: Positive School Climate, Friendship Network Density, and Adolescent Violence

Schools are often encouraged to foster a positive climate to reduce adolescent violence, but evidence on the effectiveness of this approach varies significantly. This study investigates the roots of this variation by testing alternative hypotheses about how positive school-level climate and school-level student friendship network density interact to shape adolescent violence perpetration. Research on informal social control and network closure suggests that the violence-reducing association of positive school climate will be enhanced among schools where students are more densely tied through their friendships. Research on youth conflict and subversion of control suggests the opposite. These hypotheses are tested with data from Waves I-II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 11,771; 49% Female; Age mean = 15.04, SD = 1.60). Consistent with the conflict/subversion hypothesis, analyses indicate that the inverse association between positive school climate and adolescent violence is only evident among schools with a very low density of friendship ties. Strikingly, however, there is evidence that a more positive school climate is associated with increases in violence among youth attending schools with a high density of friendship ties. These findings suggest that efforts to reduce violence by fostering cohesion among youth in their schools and other social contexts can be undermined by youth network processes.

Migrant domestic workers and transnational foodcare chains in pandemic times

AbstractIn view of heightened food security issues in COVID‐19 times, we employ a transnational lens to give bifocal attention to migrant women’s experiences during the pandemic, as they sought to secure access to food for themselves and for left‐behind children and family members in Indonesia and the Philippines. In conjunction with the classic idea of global care chains and the notion of foodwork, we propose the idea of transnational foodcare chains. This distinctly agentic, migrant, and maternal food labour came to the fore under exceptional times of pandemic‐induced social distancing, economic precarity, and limited travel. First, we argue that these foodcare chains are multi‐relational, involving interdependence and reciprocity among a web of caregivers to secure food gaps. Second, we suggest that foodcare chains also extend to friendship networks forged among fellow migrant domestic workers in Singapore. Third, under pandemic conditions, we argue that foodcare chains enter the domain of well‐being and healthcare as food becomes evoked as medicine and cures. Drawing on findings from 40 qualitative interviews with Indonesian and Filipino migrant domestic workers in Singapore, we focus on developing, within studies of food (in)security, the idea of foodcare chains by foregrounding the maternal, relational, and often invisible labour of achieving food security for migrant women and their left‐behind families.