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RESEARCH
Modeling the Effects of Social Networks on the Diffusion of School-Based Interventions (NIMH Individual National Research Service Award, #1F32 MH081426-01A1, $167,480)
I am funded on a postdoctoral NIMH National Research Service Award (F32) to pursue research on the effects of teacher advice networks on their adoption of a school-based mental health intervention targeting behavioral and academic outcomes among kindergarten through fourth grade students. In collaboration with my sponsors, Dr. Marc Atkins and Dr. David Henry, I will compare the effects of teachers’ network positions on their adoption and frequency of use of evidence-based intervention components. Results will be used to build a new model for selecting influential teachers to help spread intervention components among their peers, and are expected to inform the future dissemination of mental health interventions targeting urban children. [LINK TO RESEARCH PLAN]

Examining Relations in Childhood Relational Aggression: The Role of Peer Social Networks (Dissertation)
My doctoral dissertation research extended my interests in social network analysis and childhood relational aggression by empirically testing the associations between demographic variables, classroom social networks, and relational aggression in a racially and socio-economically diverse sample of 144 urban, third to eighth grade students. This work had two substantive aims. First, I aimed to advance the current knowledge base regarding the structure of children’s social networks by conducting descriptive analyses of sex, age, and race differences in features of classroom peer networks. Second, I examined how features of children’s position in their classroom peer networks affect their levels of relational aggression. Findings revealed that peer network features influenced both teacher-rated and peer-nominated relational aggression above and beyond common demographic variables, including sex and grade. Ego network density (i.e., having friends who are also connected to one another) was positively associated with teacher-rated relational aggression. Moreover, network size had a curvilinear effect on peer-nominated relational aggression, with these behaviors peaking at moderate levels of network size.  These findings suggest that childhood relational aggression is influenced by where children are located in the grade-level peer network. [LINK TO PDF]

The Interplay between Teacher-Led Classroom Interactions, Peer Social Networks, and Behavioral Outcomes
To date, few studies have explored the influence of teacher interactions with students on the classroom peer social network. To fill this gap, Dr. Elise Cappella (NYU) and I collected peer network data, student behavioral data, and classroom observations on 683 2nd to 4th grade African American students in 33 urban, low-income classrooms in Spring 2007. Using these data, we are currently conducting multi-level analyses to explore relationships between teacher-led classroom interactions, peer social network features, and student behavior. Preliminary findings, recently presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, suggest that children who exhibit prosocial behaviors have larger peer networks than their peers when teachers are less sensitive to students’ emotional needs, less likely to encourage higher order thinking, and exhibit lower levels of behavior management.  We believe this is indicative of a compensatory model in which students befriend prosocial peers when they do not receive emotional and academic support from their teachers.

The Seeds of Collaboration: An Examination of Graduate Student Social Networks (Co-Investigator, Midwest Sociological Society Endowment Grant, $1100)
The goals of this project are two-fold.  First, to advance the measurement of global social networks, three common methods of data collection (i.e., self-report, cognitive social structures, and social cognitive mapping) will be compared to determine their congruence. Second, the effects of professional social networks on the productivity and academic success of sociology graduate students will be explored.

MANUSCRIPTS UNDER REVIEW

Network Ties and Mean Lies: A Relational Approach to Relational Aggression
ABSTRACT: Relationally aggressive behaviors, such as social exclusion and rumor spreading, require the manipulation of social relationships, suggesting the importance of peer social networks in their successful execution. The current study adopts a relational approach to the study of relational aggression that considers how the structure of peer social networks facilitates or constrains children’s opportunities to engage in these behaviors. Specifically, the influence of two network features, normed degree centrality and ego network density, on relational aggression are explored using grade-level behavioral and social network data collected on a demographically diverse sample of 144 third through eighth grade urban elementary school students. As hypothesized, these network features influenced levels of teacher-rated and peer-nominated relational aggression above and beyond the commonly demonstrated effects of demographic characteristics (i.e., sex and grade). Results revealed that relational aggression is influenced not only by who children are, but also by where they are located in the peer context. Implications for future research and intervention are offered.

Social Aggression and Social Position in Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence: Burning Bridges or Building Them?
ABSTRACT: Some researchers have argued that social aggression perpetration has a negative influence on children’s and early adolescents’ social position, whereas others have claimed that these behaviors help children and early adolescents build and maintain their social standing. This paper reviews the evidence for each these arguments in light of three different operationalizations of social position: sociometric status, perceived popularity, and social network position. Developmental research provides support for both negative and positive social correlates of
social aggression. Namely, social aggression is negatively associated with sociometric status, but positively associated with perceived popularity and social network position. The significance of these findings for future research and intervention within school-based contexts are discussed.

Hanging Out: Features of Urban Children's Grade-Level Peer Networks
ABSTRACT: This paper explores associations between two key demographic characteristics (i.e., sex and grade) and the grade-level peer network features (i.e., size, density, and demographic homophily) of 144 third through eighth grade students in an urban, racially and socio-economically diverse elementary school. Student-reported network data
using cognitive social structures and demographic data were collected in Spring 2006. Results offer partial support for two cultures theory where sex differences in network size attenuate with grade level, and for a degrouping process where children in higher grade levels exhibit less dense networks. Findings also highlight developmental trends
toward cross-sex and same-race relationships. The paper concludes with a discussion of the importance of opportunity structures for, and the joint consideration of sex and developmental influences on, children’s peer social networks.

MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION


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