Using SNA to Examine the Long-Term Outcomes of Socially Excluded Adolescents

描述（由申请人提供）：社会排斥被描述为一种形式的“社会死亡”，因为它是许多潜在危及生命的身心健康结果的主要风险因素。在青少年中，社会排斥是同伴受害、抑郁和焦虑、从事有害行为（如吸烟、滥用药物、无保护性行为和不健康饮食）的主要风险因素（例如，肥胖），学校暴力和其他形式的攻击。促进社会融合的干预措施往往试图弥补个人的缺陷，如发展友谊技能或提高社交技能。Suc干预措施只是中等程度的成功，因为他们没有考虑到间接关系的力量，以影响健康和福祉的社会排斥青年。因此， 迫切需要调查社会网络变量对受社会排斥青年的影响。这项研究是由辛辛那提儿童医院医疗中心、肯塔基州大学和威廉和玛丽学院的教师合作进行的，在两年的时间里，每年将收集1000多名高中新生和新生的数据。这项大规模的纵向研究将解决两个重要问题。首先，什么是网络变量，对社会排斥青年适应不良的结果有最大的影响？第二，哪些重要的环境因素会缓和被社会排斥的青年的负面心理和行为结果？在成年人中进行的研究考察了网络中某个部分经历或表现出的孤独、幸福和危害健康的行为等结构，这些研究通过位于整个网络中的关键个体（联络人或“经纪人”）传播。正是通过这些经纪人，“传染病”的全部影响才传播到网络的遥远部分。最近的研究探讨了经纪人在青少年社交网络中的作用，但这些研究是基于横截面数据，并没有探讨经纪人之间的关系和他们的关系被排斥的青年。据推测，社会排斥的青年将表现出更好的结果，在某种程度上，他们有直接或间接的关系，（a）社会能力的个人和（B）个人谁在社会网络中担任经纪人的角色。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Social exclusion has been described as a form of "social death" because it is a major risk factor in many potentially life-threatening physical and mental health outcomes. Among adolescents, social exclusion is a major risk factor in peer victimization, depression and anxiety, engaging in harmful behaviors such as cigarette smoking, substance abuse, unprotected sex, and unhealthy eating (e.g., obesity), and school violence and other forms of aggression. Interventions to promote social integration often attempt to remediate individual deficits, such as developing friendship skills or improving social skills. Suc interventions are only moderately successful because they do not consider the power of indirect relationships to influence the health and well- being of socially excluded youth. Thus, there is an urgent need to investigate the effect of social network variables on outcomes for socially excluded youth. In this study, which is a collaboration between faculty from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, the University of Kentucky, and the College of William and Mary, data from over 1000 high school freshman and sophomores will be gathered twice each year, for two years. This large-scale, longitudinal study will address two important questions. First, what are the network variables that have the greatest influence on maladaptive outcomes for socially excluded youth? Second, what important environmental factors that moderate negative psychological and behavioral outcomes of socially excluded youth? Studies among adults examining constructs such as loneliness, well-being, and health- compromising behaviors experienced or displayed in one part of the network are spread via key individuals (liaisons, or "brokers") located throughout the network. It is through these brokers that the full impact of the "contagion" spreads to distant parts of the network. Recent studies have explored the role of brokers in adolescent social networks, however these studies are based on cross-sectional data and have not explored the relationship between brokers and their relationship to excluded youth. It is hypothesized that socially excluded youth will demonstrate better outcomes to the extent that they have direct or indirect relationships with (a) socially competent individuals and (b) individuals who occupy brokerage roles in the social network.