PurposeThe purpose of this study was to describe the social support networks and daily support in... more PurposeThe purpose of this study was to describe the social support networks and daily support interactions of cancer-affected individuals, including young adult (YA) and LGBTQIA+ survivors and care partners.MethodsParticipants were recruited at two United States cancer centers and via social media for a pilot study testing a novel online method for collecting prospective, daily social support interaction data (N=28). All participants were aged 18+; survivors had a current or recent cancer diagnosis and were engaged in treatment and/or services; care partners were identified by the survivors. Enrollment also purposefully targeted YA and LGBTQIA+ survivors. Social network data (up to 10 members) were assessed at baseline. Daily online surveys assessed support interactions between participants and specific network members over 14 days. Descriptive statistics summarized data and explored between-group (YA/non-YA, LGBTQIA+/non-LGBTQIA+) differences in social network characteristics (siz...
Astronomy clubs constitute a “marching army” of knowledgeable, experienced astronomy enthusiasts ... more Astronomy clubs constitute a “marching army” of knowledgeable, experienced astronomy enthusiasts deployed in a national network: an important resource for engaging the public through educational outreach events and activities. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) in partnership with the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) and Inverness Research, Inc., has been engaged in a multi-year NSF-supported project focusing on this network and its potential to advance astronomy education and outreach. The project has explored the culture of astronomy clubs, identified impediments to building cultures of outreach within clubs, and developed and introduced new mechanisms to overcome these impediments and enhance clubs’ abilities to encourage and sustain cultures that value and promote outreach efforts. This paper shares initial research, development and evaluation findings of the project, and describes ongoing supplemental efforts that continue to advance project objectives.
BACKGROUND Adolescent peers' influence on tobacco smoking is a dynamic process affected by cl... more BACKGROUND Adolescent peers' influence on tobacco smoking is a dynamic process affected by close friends and other network peers. Although research has examined the influence of immediate friends on smoking behavior (i.e., by cohesion exposure), the influence of all peers according to closeness (i.e., proximity exposure) remains unknown. This study introduces proximity exposure as a potential driver of peer influence. METHODS Using the Teenage Friends and Lifestyle Study dataset, we examined 160 adolescents followed for 3 years and assessed their friendship ties and health behavior. Proximity exposure was calculated as the proportion of an individual's network peers who smoked, considering their distance from the individual. Path analysis was conducted with cross-lagged models testing the effect of proximity exposure on smoking frequency over time. RESULTS Among nonsmokers without cohesion exposure (n = 80), proximity exposure at year 1 was significantly associated with smoking initiation by year 3. Path analysis (n = 160) indicated that smoking at year 1 predicted cohesion exposure by year 3. When proximity exposure was included, the effect of smoking on cohesion exposure was lost. Early smoking predicted future proximity exposure. However, the predictive value of early proximity toward future smoking was stronger. CONCLUSION These results suggest that proximity exposure can predict smoking even among nonsmokers without direct ties to friends who smoke. In support of a peer selection hypothesis, early smoking predicted friendship formation with smokers through cohesion. Conversely, in support of a peer influence hypothesis, proximity exposure predicted smoking. Researchers may consider developing interventions that decrease proximity exposure among adolescents.
Author(s): Jones, Eric C | Abstract: This paper proposes a hypothesis for a cultural model in Cot... more Author(s): Jones, Eric C | Abstract: This paper proposes a hypothesis for a cultural model in Cotacachi, Ecuador that contains both 1) causality that occurs in nature, and 2) dimensionality of the essence of life. At the foundation of this research—of exploring humans, plants, animals, the supernatural, weather, and features of the landscape/environment—the question was: In the minds of our informants, of what does Nature’s core consist when considering the six domains we chose. In this case, preliminary results suggest that Nature can exist without cities as part of the core, and Nature can exist without the Christian God at its core. This splitting of the spirit world between Christian spirits and Mother Nature (and other spirits), as well as the splitting of humans into urbanites and rural dwellers undoubtedly creates some cognitive dissonance, and may partially be influenced by the common Christian and Western/urban dualisms. However, these differentiations between kinds of spir...
Social Network Analysis of Disaster Response, Recovery, and Adaptation, 2017
In this study, we explored the networks created after a day care fire in Hermosillo, Mexico, and ... more In this study, we explored the networks created after a day care fire in Hermosillo, Mexico, and examined the association of justice-seeking activities with posttraumatic stress and depression of parents and caretakers. We also looked at how political groups (created as the result of the traumatic event) were associated with symptoms of stress and depression. We interviewed people at eight and 20 months after the fire, and we report in this chapter on the data from the second wave. People with higher levels of posttraumatic stress indicators were more active in marches and public meetings, activities surrounding the fire's first anniversary, speaking to the press or to the crowd at an event, and were involved in a group membership related to the incident.
Background Over 5000 community anti-drug coalitions operating in the USA serve as a cornerstone o... more Background Over 5000 community anti-drug coalitions operating in the USA serve as a cornerstone of federal drug prevention. These coalitions, however, have demonstrated effectiveness in preventing substance use only when they use technical assistance (TA) and implement evidence-based programs (EBPs). The absence of TA and EBP implementation by coalitions is a key research-to-practice gap. The Coalition Check-Up TA system is designed to fill this gap by supporting community coalition implementation of EBPs. Existing TA models for evidence-based coalition approaches are resource intensive and coalition model specific. The Coalition Check-Up is a lower cost strategy that works with a variety of types of coalitions to support sustainable implementation of EBPs. This study protocol describes a hybrid type 3 effectiveness-implementation trial applying Wandersman’s Interactive Systems Framework to test the effects of the Coalition Check-Up on coalition EBP implementation capacity and outco...
Social Network Analysis of Disaster Response, Recovery, and Adaptation, 2017
This chapter reviews social network analysis's contribution to alternatively complementary or... more This chapter reviews social network analysis's contribution to alternatively complementary or conflicting conclusions about human behavior and relationships in disaster. The social network is a seductive concept in the anthropology of disasters—a potentially robust tool for investigating complex human and human-environment entanglements. What are the conceptual, theoretical, and empirical trends—and potential opportunities and constraints—in social network analysis approaches to studying the behaviors, perceptions, and well-being of individuals in disaster contexts? In this integrative overview, we find generally promising topics to be: how various types of ties contribute to an individual's experience of disaster; what diversity and homophily do in response, recovery, and adaptation; why a constellation or spiderweb of relationships sometimes produces emergent properties; when network potential is translated into network activation; and how we can theoretically capture the unfolding of the disaster experience without making it an unrealistic set of stages.
This paper explores some of the remarkable properties that set human ecosystems apart from nonhum... more This paper explores some of the remarkable properties that set human ecosystems apart from nonhuman ecosystems. The identification of these properties provides a framework for bridging the theoretical and methodological divide between biological ecology and human ecology. The unique information-processing capability of humans in ecosystems is central to this framework. We discuss several manifestations of human cognitive and behavioral abilities, termed "remarkable properties" of human ecosystems. A cross-cultural and historical approach is taken in demonstrating some of these properties. Related to these properties are the ways in which complex functional and dysfunctional or maladaptive processes take place in human ecosystems. We assert that one of the greatest challenges for human ecology is to integrate belief systems as a major component of human ecosystems.
We introduce this book and the field of disaster networks briefly in this chapter. We indicate wh... more We introduce this book and the field of disaster networks briefly in this chapter. We indicate what we mean by networks, and we advocate reading the rest of the book keeping the following things in mind since they're not always present or explicit in research in this field: the ways types of roles and types of relationships in disaster settings produce fundamentally different kinds of network dynamics; levels of analysis; interdisciplinarity; potential versus realized ties; ethics; and applications or translation. The book's chapters cover hazards originating from human carelessness and those originating in the earth's biophysical environment, and generally focus topically either on social support or coordination of emergency management, and some chapters methodologically cover network structures or longitudinal network dynamics.
There is increased interest over the last decade in the use of Shared Decision Making with indivi... more There is increased interest over the last decade in the use of Shared Decision Making with individuals with serious mental illness to improve engagement in treatment and clinical outcomes. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 15 individuals with serious mental illness treated in an outpatient transitional care clinic serving people immediately after discharge from a psychiatric hospitalization. Parallel interviews were conducted with a variety of clinical providers (n = 9). Using latent thematic analysis, six themes were identified including: (1) Differences in the Use of SDM, (2) Consideration of Past Experiences, (3) Decisional Power Preferences, (4) Use of SDM in Psychiatry Versus Other Areas of Medicine, (5) Dignity and Disengagement, and (6) External Forces Impacting SDM. Implications for clinical practice and research using a shared decision-making approach within this treatment setting are further discussed.
Social Network Analysis of Disaster Response, Recovery, and Adaptation, 2017
It is well established that roughly twice as many women as men after disasters experience posttra... more It is well established that roughly twice as many women as men after disasters experience posttraumatic stress, and that their mean levels of posttraumatic stress are slightly to moderately higher. Social support is often a buffer for these impacts, but not always. Social responsibilities can exacerbate postdisaster stress. To seek a better understanding of how facets of social support play out in women's and men's lives in the years following a disaster, we analyzed a cross-section of personal networks to get detailed information on the types of people in one's life, the types of support received, and the way these personal networks were structured. We found that these facets of networks rarely performed similarly for men's and women's mental health, and these differences may explain some of the variation in postdisaster-gendered mental health.
PurposeThe purpose of this study was to describe the social support networks and daily support in... more PurposeThe purpose of this study was to describe the social support networks and daily support interactions of cancer-affected individuals, including young adult (YA) and LGBTQIA+ survivors and care partners.MethodsParticipants were recruited at two United States cancer centers and via social media for a pilot study testing a novel online method for collecting prospective, daily social support interaction data (N=28). All participants were aged 18+; survivors had a current or recent cancer diagnosis and were engaged in treatment and/or services; care partners were identified by the survivors. Enrollment also purposefully targeted YA and LGBTQIA+ survivors. Social network data (up to 10 members) were assessed at baseline. Daily online surveys assessed support interactions between participants and specific network members over 14 days. Descriptive statistics summarized data and explored between-group (YA/non-YA, LGBTQIA+/non-LGBTQIA+) differences in social network characteristics (siz...
Astronomy clubs constitute a “marching army” of knowledgeable, experienced astronomy enthusiasts ... more Astronomy clubs constitute a “marching army” of knowledgeable, experienced astronomy enthusiasts deployed in a national network: an important resource for engaging the public through educational outreach events and activities. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) in partnership with the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) and Inverness Research, Inc., has been engaged in a multi-year NSF-supported project focusing on this network and its potential to advance astronomy education and outreach. The project has explored the culture of astronomy clubs, identified impediments to building cultures of outreach within clubs, and developed and introduced new mechanisms to overcome these impediments and enhance clubs’ abilities to encourage and sustain cultures that value and promote outreach efforts. This paper shares initial research, development and evaluation findings of the project, and describes ongoing supplemental efforts that continue to advance project objectives.
BACKGROUND Adolescent peers' influence on tobacco smoking is a dynamic process affected by cl... more BACKGROUND Adolescent peers' influence on tobacco smoking is a dynamic process affected by close friends and other network peers. Although research has examined the influence of immediate friends on smoking behavior (i.e., by cohesion exposure), the influence of all peers according to closeness (i.e., proximity exposure) remains unknown. This study introduces proximity exposure as a potential driver of peer influence. METHODS Using the Teenage Friends and Lifestyle Study dataset, we examined 160 adolescents followed for 3 years and assessed their friendship ties and health behavior. Proximity exposure was calculated as the proportion of an individual's network peers who smoked, considering their distance from the individual. Path analysis was conducted with cross-lagged models testing the effect of proximity exposure on smoking frequency over time. RESULTS Among nonsmokers without cohesion exposure (n = 80), proximity exposure at year 1 was significantly associated with smoking initiation by year 3. Path analysis (n = 160) indicated that smoking at year 1 predicted cohesion exposure by year 3. When proximity exposure was included, the effect of smoking on cohesion exposure was lost. Early smoking predicted future proximity exposure. However, the predictive value of early proximity toward future smoking was stronger. CONCLUSION These results suggest that proximity exposure can predict smoking even among nonsmokers without direct ties to friends who smoke. In support of a peer selection hypothesis, early smoking predicted friendship formation with smokers through cohesion. Conversely, in support of a peer influence hypothesis, proximity exposure predicted smoking. Researchers may consider developing interventions that decrease proximity exposure among adolescents.
Author(s): Jones, Eric C | Abstract: This paper proposes a hypothesis for a cultural model in Cot... more Author(s): Jones, Eric C | Abstract: This paper proposes a hypothesis for a cultural model in Cotacachi, Ecuador that contains both 1) causality that occurs in nature, and 2) dimensionality of the essence of life. At the foundation of this research—of exploring humans, plants, animals, the supernatural, weather, and features of the landscape/environment—the question was: In the minds of our informants, of what does Nature’s core consist when considering the six domains we chose. In this case, preliminary results suggest that Nature can exist without cities as part of the core, and Nature can exist without the Christian God at its core. This splitting of the spirit world between Christian spirits and Mother Nature (and other spirits), as well as the splitting of humans into urbanites and rural dwellers undoubtedly creates some cognitive dissonance, and may partially be influenced by the common Christian and Western/urban dualisms. However, these differentiations between kinds of spir...
Social Network Analysis of Disaster Response, Recovery, and Adaptation, 2017
In this study, we explored the networks created after a day care fire in Hermosillo, Mexico, and ... more In this study, we explored the networks created after a day care fire in Hermosillo, Mexico, and examined the association of justice-seeking activities with posttraumatic stress and depression of parents and caretakers. We also looked at how political groups (created as the result of the traumatic event) were associated with symptoms of stress and depression. We interviewed people at eight and 20 months after the fire, and we report in this chapter on the data from the second wave. People with higher levels of posttraumatic stress indicators were more active in marches and public meetings, activities surrounding the fire's first anniversary, speaking to the press or to the crowd at an event, and were involved in a group membership related to the incident.
Background Over 5000 community anti-drug coalitions operating in the USA serve as a cornerstone o... more Background Over 5000 community anti-drug coalitions operating in the USA serve as a cornerstone of federal drug prevention. These coalitions, however, have demonstrated effectiveness in preventing substance use only when they use technical assistance (TA) and implement evidence-based programs (EBPs). The absence of TA and EBP implementation by coalitions is a key research-to-practice gap. The Coalition Check-Up TA system is designed to fill this gap by supporting community coalition implementation of EBPs. Existing TA models for evidence-based coalition approaches are resource intensive and coalition model specific. The Coalition Check-Up is a lower cost strategy that works with a variety of types of coalitions to support sustainable implementation of EBPs. This study protocol describes a hybrid type 3 effectiveness-implementation trial applying Wandersman’s Interactive Systems Framework to test the effects of the Coalition Check-Up on coalition EBP implementation capacity and outco...
Social Network Analysis of Disaster Response, Recovery, and Adaptation, 2017
This chapter reviews social network analysis's contribution to alternatively complementary or... more This chapter reviews social network analysis's contribution to alternatively complementary or conflicting conclusions about human behavior and relationships in disaster. The social network is a seductive concept in the anthropology of disasters—a potentially robust tool for investigating complex human and human-environment entanglements. What are the conceptual, theoretical, and empirical trends—and potential opportunities and constraints—in social network analysis approaches to studying the behaviors, perceptions, and well-being of individuals in disaster contexts? In this integrative overview, we find generally promising topics to be: how various types of ties contribute to an individual's experience of disaster; what diversity and homophily do in response, recovery, and adaptation; why a constellation or spiderweb of relationships sometimes produces emergent properties; when network potential is translated into network activation; and how we can theoretically capture the unfolding of the disaster experience without making it an unrealistic set of stages.
This paper explores some of the remarkable properties that set human ecosystems apart from nonhum... more This paper explores some of the remarkable properties that set human ecosystems apart from nonhuman ecosystems. The identification of these properties provides a framework for bridging the theoretical and methodological divide between biological ecology and human ecology. The unique information-processing capability of humans in ecosystems is central to this framework. We discuss several manifestations of human cognitive and behavioral abilities, termed "remarkable properties" of human ecosystems. A cross-cultural and historical approach is taken in demonstrating some of these properties. Related to these properties are the ways in which complex functional and dysfunctional or maladaptive processes take place in human ecosystems. We assert that one of the greatest challenges for human ecology is to integrate belief systems as a major component of human ecosystems.
We introduce this book and the field of disaster networks briefly in this chapter. We indicate wh... more We introduce this book and the field of disaster networks briefly in this chapter. We indicate what we mean by networks, and we advocate reading the rest of the book keeping the following things in mind since they're not always present or explicit in research in this field: the ways types of roles and types of relationships in disaster settings produce fundamentally different kinds of network dynamics; levels of analysis; interdisciplinarity; potential versus realized ties; ethics; and applications or translation. The book's chapters cover hazards originating from human carelessness and those originating in the earth's biophysical environment, and generally focus topically either on social support or coordination of emergency management, and some chapters methodologically cover network structures or longitudinal network dynamics.
There is increased interest over the last decade in the use of Shared Decision Making with indivi... more There is increased interest over the last decade in the use of Shared Decision Making with individuals with serious mental illness to improve engagement in treatment and clinical outcomes. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 15 individuals with serious mental illness treated in an outpatient transitional care clinic serving people immediately after discharge from a psychiatric hospitalization. Parallel interviews were conducted with a variety of clinical providers (n = 9). Using latent thematic analysis, six themes were identified including: (1) Differences in the Use of SDM, (2) Consideration of Past Experiences, (3) Decisional Power Preferences, (4) Use of SDM in Psychiatry Versus Other Areas of Medicine, (5) Dignity and Disengagement, and (6) External Forces Impacting SDM. Implications for clinical practice and research using a shared decision-making approach within this treatment setting are further discussed.
Social Network Analysis of Disaster Response, Recovery, and Adaptation, 2017
It is well established that roughly twice as many women as men after disasters experience posttra... more It is well established that roughly twice as many women as men after disasters experience posttraumatic stress, and that their mean levels of posttraumatic stress are slightly to moderately higher. Social support is often a buffer for these impacts, but not always. Social responsibilities can exacerbate postdisaster stress. To seek a better understanding of how facets of social support play out in women's and men's lives in the years following a disaster, we analyzed a cross-section of personal networks to get detailed information on the types of people in one's life, the types of support received, and the way these personal networks were structured. We found that these facets of networks rarely performed similarly for men's and women's mental health, and these differences may explain some of the variation in postdisaster-gendered mental health.
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