3-043 - From Making to Influencing Friends: Using Social Network Analysis to Guide, Deliver, and Evaluate Peer Interventions

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Social network analysis (SNA) has risen to prominence in the social and developmental sciences because it identifies interdependencies among members of a network that may account for changes in social relationships and individual behaviors above and beyond what can be predicted from individual characteristics (Wölfer, Faber, & Hewstone, 2015). More recently, SNA has played a prominent role in the conceptualization and evaluation of intervention programs (Valente, 2012) that seek to promote or inhibit particular social ties or individual behaviors. The proposed paper symposium features three such SNA-inspired intervention studies involving children and adolescents. These studies employ SNA at different stages of the research process, including intervention conceptualization, delivery, and evaluation; and demonstrate the utility of SNA for evaluating the impact of interventions on both individual behavior and the network itself (e.g., the creation of network ties).

The first study assesses the effectiveness of a peer pairing intervention for preschoolers aimed to increase peer interactions in general and interactions with unfamiliar and cross-gender peers in particular. The second study uses changes in two middle school friendship networks to measure the effectiveness of a relationship building intervention aimed to promote same- and cross-race friendships. The third study examines the diffusion of intervention effects from a substance abuse intervention program that utilized peer leaders to decrease perceived social rewards of substance use in middle school.

The co-chairs for this session will guide focused discussion of the conceptual, methodological and substantive contributions of the studies presented and broader issues arising in SNA intervention research.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chairs

• Leslie Echols, Missouri State University

• Scott Gest, Pennsylvania State University

Individual Presentations

• Building Relationships: Effects of a Teacher-Directed, Peer-Pairing Intervention on Children’s Peer Networks - Presenting Author: Laura D. Hanish, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Dawn DeLay, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Carol Lynn Martin, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Bridget Maria Lecheile, Washington Association for Infant Mental Health; Non-Presenting Author: Priscilla Goble, Texas State University; Non-Presenting Author: Richard A. Fabes, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Crystal Bryce, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Rachel E Cook, Arizona State University

• From Fast Friends to Close Friends? The Impact of Interpersonal Closeness Tasks on Adolescent Friendships - Presenting Author: Leslie Echols, Missouri State University; Non-Presenting Author: Jerreed D Ivanich, University of Nebraska at Lincoln

• Diffusion of Intervention Effects from Peer Leaders to Friends: Effects from Above the Influence - Presenting Author: Kelly L Rulison, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Non-Presenting Author: Peter A Wyman, University of Rochester; Non-Presenting Author: Brandon N Mendenhall, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Non-Presenting Author: Anthony R Pisani, University of Rochester