Identifying Mechanisms of Peer Influence on Youth Weight-Related Behaviors

总结 自20世纪70年代以来，美国的儿童肥胖症增加了两到三倍。到目前为止， 以学校为基础的预防和治疗超重和肥胖的干预措施只取得了有限的成功。 许多这些干预措施是由健康行为理论和改变战略，解决 从多个层面影响。但是，关于同龄人对青年的影响的资料有限 体重状况和与体重相关的行为，如身体活动、屏幕时间和饮食模式。一 越来越多的文献表明，这种与体重有关的行为在朋友之间是相似的， 这种行为聚集的机制仍然不清楚。朋友之间可以互相影响，但 相似的学生可能成为朋友，或者朋友可能受到相似的外部影响。更好的 了解这些现象将有助于设计更有效的干预措施， 同侪影响力的力量因此，这项拟议研究的目的是确定这些机制， 通过收集和分析不同年龄段的年轻人的社交网络和体重相关行为数据， 青少年在中学期间（6至8年级）。我们将明确衡量网络的 互动（受访者与谁共度时光）、情感（受访者喜欢谁），以及 有组织的活动（班级、俱乐部和团队）。每学年将多次收集数据 允许我们在精细的时间颗粒中分析这些过程，并在组织中使用外部变化 活动作为自然实验和准实验的社会网络结构和重量有关 行为。随机行动者导向模型将被用来严格分析网络的共同进化 结构和重量相关的行为。利用这些统计分析的结果，基于代理的 （模拟）将开发模型，以纳入直接因果关系和反馈以及 随着时间的推移，这些影响的形状。这些模型将被用来模拟可能的干预情景， 行为和最终的体重状况。拟议的研究将确定独特的杠杆点， WRB干预的目标和时机。我们预计，下一代WRB干预措施将能够 利用从这项研究中获得的信息来提高他们防止年轻人体重过度增加的能力 从而降低相关健康风险因素和合并症的当前和未来流行率。项目 将为开发、测试和评估干预策略提供一个经验校准的测试平台， 其可以与受隐私保护的研究数据一起沿着与公众共享。

Summary The United States has experienced a two to three fold increase in pediatric obesity since the 1970’s. To date, school-based interventions to prevent and treat overweight and obesity have realized only limited success. Many of these interventions are guided by health behavior theories and change strategies that address the issue from multiple levels of influence. There is, however, limited information regarding peer influence on youth weight status and weight-related behaviors, such as physical activity, screen time, and dietary patterns. A growing body of literature suggests that such weight-related behaviors are similar among friends, but the mechanisms underlying this clustering of behaviors remain unclear. Friends may influence each other, but also similar students may become friends, or friends may be exposed to similar outside influences. A better understanding of these phenomena would facilitate design of more effective interventions that can leverage the power of peer influence. Therefore, the purpose of this proposed study is to identify these mechanisms of action by collecting and analyzing social network and weight-related behavior data in a cohort of diverse young adolescents during their middle school years (6th to 8th grade). We will distinctly measure networks of interaction (whom the respondent spends his/her time with), sentiments (whom the respondent likes), and organized activities (classes, clubs, and teams). Data will be collected several times each academic year allowing us to analyze these processes in fine time grain and to use external changes in the organized activities as natural experiments and quasi-experiments on social network structures and weight-related behaviors. Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models will be used to rigorously analyze the co-evolution of the network structure and weight-related behaviors. Using findings from those statistical analyses, Agent-Based (simulation) Models will be developed to incorporate direct causal relationships and feedbacks as well as the shapes of these effects over time. Such models will be used to simulate potential intervention scenarios on the behaviors and ultimately, weight status. The proposed research will identify unique leverage points for targeting and timing of WRB interventions. We anticipate that next generation WRB interventions will be able to use the information obtained from this study to improve their ability to prevent excess weight gain in youth thereby reducing the current and future prevalence of related health risk factors and co-morbidities. The project will produce an empirically calibrated test bed for developing, testing, and evaluating intervention strategies, which can be shared with the general public along with privacy-protected study data.