Doctoral Dissertation Research: Impact of Geography and Social Ties on Health and Well-being

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This project examines how the social and spatial environments in which people live either jointly or separately and independently affect their mental and physical health. A fundamental social and biological fact about human beings is that where people live shapes who they become, and their health and economic prospects in particular. The reasons for this are still not fully understood but one key reason is that people do not live on their own; relationships to others give rise to face-to-face social networks, and these social connections generally occupy the same places. Research has established the connections between networks and place, and between networks and health, but this doctoral dissertation research project explores the intersection of all three (people in networks in places). Results may help practitioners and decision makers create new ways of thinking about geographically contextualized networks and new ways of addressing important public health concerns.This research uses extremely detailed data on 24,812 individuals in 176 communities in a setting in which people live in close proximity to members of their social networks. Statistical methods such as multilevel models are employed to answer a variety of questions related to networks, geography, and health. The researcher investigates the following questions: 1) Is network centrality associated with geographic centrality and how do these locations impact health? 2) Are negative ties between individuals spatially patterned such that individuals “keep their enemies closer” than their friends, and how does this proximity influence health? 3) Using the ecological concept of “ecotones,” do individuals in particular locations experience higher variability in health outcomes?This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.