Research Framework and Background
My research explores how social networks shape health-risk behaviors during adolescence and young adulthood. This research cuts across disciplinary boundaries: prevention science, statistics, developmental, social, clinical, and quantitative psychology, public health, sociology, and criminology. Therefore, in my research I draw on theories, methods, and models from each of these disciplines. In addition, I collaborate with researchers across disciplines, including Scott Gest (human development), Wayne Osgood (criminology / sociology), Mark Feinberg (prevention science), James Moody (sociology), Derek Kreager (criminology / sociology), David Wyrick (public health), Linda Collins (methodology), Peter Wyman (psychiatry), and Eric Loken (developmental methodology).
Research Interests
Broadly, my research focuses on how social networks shape health-risk behaviors such as substance use, delinquency, and suicide. This research was motivated by the sharp contrast between the strong theoretical reasons to expect peer influence and the modest empirical evidence that supports these theories: If peers are an important social environment, why is there inconsistent evidence of peer influence? One reason for this paradox is that past studies have not always matched the complexity of research questions about peer influence with appropriate data collection and analytic strategies (Rulison, Patrick, & Maggs, 2015). To address this challenge, I use innovative methods – such as social network analysis, actor-oriented modeling, multilevel modeling, and mediation analysis – within my research to study the dynamic, multilevel, and bidirectional interactions between social networks and health-risk behaviors.
Based on these interests, my research agenda addresses three primary aims:
These three aims have led me to ask questions such as: What are the social and developmental processes that underlie deviant peer influence and how do these processes unfold over time? How can statistical innovations in social network analysis, multilevel modeling, and latent variable modeling be applied to study the dynamic interplay between peer networks and deviant behavior? To what extent can peer networks promote the diffusion of effects from universal family-based interventions? How can we maximize the public health impact of online interventions targeting alcohol and other drug use among student-athletes?
Based on these interests, my research agenda addresses three primary aims:
- To identify mechanisms through which social networks shape health-risk behaviors
- To identify when and how intervention effects can diffuse through social networks, reaching individuals who did not directly participate in the intervention
- To optimize interventions so that they have a greater public health impact
These three aims have led me to ask questions such as: What are the social and developmental processes that underlie deviant peer influence and how do these processes unfold over time? How can statistical innovations in social network analysis, multilevel modeling, and latent variable modeling be applied to study the dynamic interplay between peer networks and deviant behavior? To what extent can peer networks promote the diffusion of effects from universal family-based interventions? How can we maximize the public health impact of online interventions targeting alcohol and other drug use among student-athletes?
Click on any of the pictures below to learn more about each of my research interests:
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Photo courtesy of PhotoXpress.com
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Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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