Drawing from the model of community cultural wealth, which suggests that youth from minoritized populations can draw on their cultural knowledge, networks, and skills to successfully navigate their academic contexts, the current study examined whether latent profiles of cultural capital emerged among a sample of Latino adolescents using various indicators of cultural wealth. The sample included 627 Latino adolescents (95% U.S.-born; 57% girls; 33% 9th graders, 27% 10th graders, 23% 11th graders, 18% 12th graders). Specifically, configurations of cultural wealth were analyzed based on the following dimensions: familial ethnic socialization, ethnic-racial identity components, and emotional support from Latino and non-Latino friendship networks. Research questions also included testing whether profiles characterized by greater cultural wealth exhibited better academic adjustment (i.e., emotional and behavioral academic adjustment, academic self-efficacy, and school belonging), and whether the association between ethnoracial discrimination and academic adjustment was moderated by profile membership. Findings revealed four profiles, with the largest (38%) consisting of adolescents with high cultural wealth (i.e., Achieved, High FES, High Friend Support). Furthermore, this profile exhibited better academic adjustment relative to the profiles that varied in levels of cultural wealth. When examining whether profiles with more cultural wealth also demonstrated better academic adjustment in the face of ethnoracial discrimination, findings revealed that a subgroup with more moderate cultural wealth (Moratorium, Moderate FES, High Friend Support) was more vulnerable to discrimination for most indicators of adjustment compared to all other profiles. Overall, findings extend previous variable-centered work by showing that Latino adolescents have heterogeneous experiences with cultural wealth, and examining these subgroups of adolescents provides novel insights into understanding how cultural wealth differently relates to adolescents’ academic adjustment, including in the context of ethnoracial discrimination.

Longitudinal research consistently finds life course transitions associated with changes in individual-level egonetworks, but the interplay of agency and structure underlying these network dynamics largely remains elusive. In this study, we present a hybrid mixed methods research design that brings to the forefront decision making within the structural opportunities and constraints associated with life course transitions and network change. We combine longitudinal data on existing, added, dissolved, and anticipated social network ties collected using Network Canvas with open-ended interview questions asking why specific relationships changed over time. We gather this data at more rapid intervals than typical to document and understand heightened network turnover seen during life course transitions. As an illustration, we present longitudinal egonetwork and interview data from two participants in a novel prison reentry program, demonstrating how our method elucidates the structural and cognitive processes accompanying network change during an important life course transition.

The current study draws from literature on Multiracial ethnic-racial identity development processes and utilizes logistic regression models to identify what factors inform ethnic-racial self-categorization choices when confronted with a monoracial paradigm of race in a sample of Biracial high school students. Separate logistic regression models analyzed how family ethnic-racial socialization, phenotype, friend groups, and experiences with discrimination are associated with the racial category for Biracial White, Asian, Black, Native American, and Latinx youth, respectively, when asked to choose just one racial background. Results suggest that the associations of family ethnic-racial socialization, experiences with discrimination, and skin color with self-categorization vary in directionality and strength for different groups of Biracial adolescents. However, adolescents with a greater proportion of friends in a given ethnic-racial group were more likely to self-categorize with that respective ethnic-racial group across all models. These findings provide a nuanced understanding of how Biracial youth draw on various aspects of their lived experiences when confronting monoracism.

We examine exclusion and the persistence of STEM disparities for underrepresented minority (URM) students at one diverse college campus, a prestigious Minority Serving Institution (MSI). We draw on in-depth interviews with 28 class- and ethnoracially diverse children of immigrants to examine how they navigated their first year in biology. Our analysis reveals three types of students who differ in STEM capital: (1) STEM-thrivers, who inhabit a "bio-bubble"; (2) STEM-adapters, who straddle STEM-dominant and non-STEM-dominant peers; and (3) STEM-disconnected, who struggle in silence. We explain how this STEM capital typology is racially inflected, informed by both immigrant class origin and high school segregation. We call attention to social dynamics associated with STEM capital, the forms of exclusion encountered by URM students, and how universities, including MSIs, can reinforce STEM disparities that result in social reproduction.

Out-of-school activity participation has been found to support healthy development and friendship creation during early adolescence. Research on peer ties within school shows that these relationships can positively impact social emotional outcomes for adolescents. However, it remains unclear if the relationships fostered in extracurricular programming contribute to the positive development observed in these settings. To address this, we examined how peer ties within an out-of-school program serving Latine adolescents develop throughout the summer, alongside social emotional outcomes. At the program’s end, students had statistically significant increases in their ties to peers, as well as in their feelings of belonging, mattering, connection, and perceptions of program climate. Cross-sectional regression models revealed outgoing close ties were positively associated with mattering, connection, and program climate perceptions; these associations were not present in longitudinal models. These results showcase the association between adolescents’ perceptions of closeness to peers and social emotional outcomes in out-of-school activities.

We describe a longitudinal mixed methods program evaluation protocol for a novel peer-led housing program for older men transitioning from prison to the community after completing long sentences of incarceration. The program departs from traditional community corrections models by providing peer-run housing designed to build and enhance peer and community social ties. This previously untested program relies on the principles of network alteration and provides a case study for examining interpersonal mechanisms underlying behavioral health and justice related outcomes. We use mixed methods and longitudinal social network analysis to evaluate the program, while also applying implementation science to document program development. We focus our evaluation on key health and social outcomes, including mental health, substance use, stress, health risk behaviors, well-being, financial security, housing, and recidivism. With longitudinal surveys, we collect (1) dynamic network data of resident and staff relationships and (2) behavioral health/social data of participants. We also administer longitudinal resident and staff interviews. Resident interviews focus on interpersonal relationships and reentry experiences, while staff interviews describe program implementation. We apply longitudinal statistical models to complete (i.e., sociocentric) network data within the house to examine how dynamic network properties connect to changes in residents’ health, behavioral, and social outcomes. We integrate longitudinal survey, individual-level (i.e., egocentric) network, and qualitative data to understand how the program works. To evaluate program impacts for long-term health and social outcomes, we use an untreated matched sample to compare 6- and 12-months post-prison release outcomes using administrative data related to rearrest/reincarceration and behavioral health. We use a logic model to present and organize pre-implementation results from interviews with program staff and peer mentors. Our results describe program design and intended goals, while highlighting how the program is rooted in principles of peer support, trauma-informed care, and restorative justice to address unique stressors of incarceration to foster responsibility and facilitate reintegration. Community program evaluation research allows us to document real-world contextual factors that may drive intervention effectiveness. Results of the mixed methods evaluation will provide a comprehensive understanding of one network-based program’s ability to support health and social outcomes of older, previously incarcerated men. Results may inform future reentry services.

Research on race homophily in the United States has yet to meaningfully include the growing multiracial population. The present study confronts this challenge by drawing upon recent conceptualizations of race as a multidimensional construct. In aligning this insight with current understandings of homophily, we identify and address several open questions about the origins of race homophily—namely regarding the possibility of peer influence on racial identity and network selection based on multiple facets of race. Data are from 3,036 youth in two large U.S. high schools with sizable proportions of mixed-race students. Using a stochastic actor-oriented model, we find that students choose friends based on similarity across multiple dimensions of racial identity and that peer influence operates to reinforce multiracial youths' racial self-classification rather than to induce change. This points to a system where race homophily arises through multiple selection mechanisms and is reinforced by pressure toward conformity.

We investigate the network micro-selection mechanisms responsible for patterns of high school student extracurricular activity (ECA) participation, with a particular focus on those that can lead to ethnoracial segregation. We identify six types of mechanisms by which students select into activities (e.g., peer influence, homophily), which we test using a unique longitudinal dataset that combines student surveys with yearbook data on ECA involvement. These contexts represent two ethnoracially diverse U.S. high schools involving 2403 students and over 200 different activities spanning two school years. Using a stochastic actor-oriented model for two-mode networks, we find support for the hypothesized activity selection mechanisms. Follow-up analyses convey the relative importance of different mechanisms and inform our discussion of how ECA participation patterns develop and possible sources of segregation. Whereas selection is driven by mechanisms that include influence from friends and co-participants and similarity to fellow participants, no single overarching mechanism appears strong enough to fully account for ECA segregation

Network Analysis has traditionally been applied to analyzing interactions among learners in online learning platforms such as discussion boards. However, there are opportunities to bring Network Analysis to bear on networks representing learners' mental models of course material, rather than learner interactions. This paper describes the construction and analysis of collaborative educational networks based on concept maps created by undergraduates. Concept mapping activities were deployed throughout two separate quarters of a large General Education (GE) course about sustainability and technology at a large university on the West Coast of the United States. A variety of Network Analysis metrics are evaluated on their ability to predict an individual learner's understanding based on that learner's contributions to a network representing the collective understanding of all learners in the course. Several of the metrics significantly correlated with learner performance, especially those that compare an individual learner's conformity to the larger group's consensus. The novel network metrics based on collective networks of learner concept maps are shown to produce stronger and more reproducible correlations with learner performance than metrics traditionally used in the literature to evaluate concept maps. This paper thus demonstrates that Network Analysis in conjunction with collective networks of concept maps can provide insights into learners' conceptual understanding of course material.

Recent research on intergroup contact theory has emphasized the potency of cross-group friendship for reducing prejudice. Evaluating this claim requires consideration of competing friend influence and selection processes. Few studies have jointly tested these mechanisms and often only in limited, majority/minority group contexts. In this study, the authors articulate several mechanisms linking friendships with intergroup attitudes and test them in a diverse U.S. context (two large high schools with significant representations of multiple ethnoracial groups). The analysis involves a longitudinal network model of friendship and attitude coevolution. The findings indicate that ingroup friends influenced intergroup contact attitudes (ICAs) over time, while more open ICAs promoted selection into cross-group friendship. By contrast, effects of cross-group friendships on ICAs were limited to White students with Black friends. These findings suggest that the effect of intergroup contact is overstated in the context of friendship and that more focus should be paid to understanding other friendship dynamics.

Combining theories of health lifestyles-interrelated health behaviors arising from group-based identities-with those of network and behavior change, we investigated network characteristics of health lifestyles and the role of influence and selection processes underlying these characteristics. We examined these questions in two high schools using longitudinal, complete friendship network data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Latent class analyses characterized each school's predominant health lifestyles using several health behavior domains. School-specific stochastic actor-based models evaluated the bidirectional relationship between friendship networks and health lifestyles. Predominant lifestyles remained stable within schools over time, even as individuals transitioned between lifestyles. Friends displayed greater similarity in health lifestyles than nonfriend dyads. Similarities resulted primarily from teens' selection of friends with similar lifestyles but also from teens influencing their peers' lifestyles. This study demonstrates the salience of health lifestyles for adolescent development and friendship networks.

Universities are increasingly using learning communities (LCs) to promote the academic and social integration of entering students, especially within STEM majors. Examining the causal effect of LCs on student networks is necessary to understand the nature and scope of their impact. This study combines a regression discontinuity design with social network analysis to estimate the effect of a simple LC design on the size , strength , structure , and composition of friendship networks among students within the same biological sciences freshman cohort. Results of the quasi-experimental analysis indicate that LC participants acquired one additional friend in the major and increased their share of friends in the LC by 54 percentage-points. Exponential random-graph models that test mediation and alternative friendship mechanisms provide support for the theoretical argument that the LC promoted friendship development by structuring opportunities for interaction through block-registration into courses. Thus, this study shows that even simple LCs can shape the development of friendships through relatively low-cost administrative means. The increased access to resources and support facilitated by the LC is likely beneficial for participating students. However, there is a potential downside when eligibility for participation is determined using academic metrics that separate the student population into distinct classroom environments.

Parents and friends are important influences on adolescents' academic outcomes. We examine whether and how adolescents' social networks compensate for or enhance the effects of their parents' education on academic outcomes. Among a large ethnoracially diverse sample of high school students in the Southwestern (N = 2,136) and Midwestern (N = 1,055) United States, results from network autocorrelation models showed that higher levels of mother and father education were related to greater academic self-efficacy and engagement and higher aspirations, expectations, and grade point averages at both schools. Friends' parents' education levels were positively associated with adolescents' academic aspirations, expectations, and grade point averages across all of the models; higher levels of friends' parents' education were related to greater academic self-efficacy across all models, except for mothers in the Southwest; and friends' fathers' education levels were positively related to adolescents' academic engagement for students in the Midwestern school only. There were no significant interaction effects between parents' and friends' parents' education levels in predicting academic outcomes. Differences in the distribution of parental education across ethnic-racial groups shaped the implications of the model for adolescents' academic adjustment. Findings highlight the impact of educational opportunity across generations in shaping academic inequities.

Objectives Despite renewed research interest in prison social organization, little is known about how relationships that constitute the prison social system develop and change. The current study aims to understand the processes that link friendship and power within a prison unit over time. Method We examine longitudinal data on friendship and attributions of power collected from 274 residents in a Pennsylvania medium-security prison unit. We use a stochastic actor-oriented model to evaluate selection mechanisms that influence these relations and ascertain their temporal association. Results We find different mechanisms responsible for friendship selections and power attributions. Friendships are primarily driven by attribute-based mechanisms, while power attributions are driven by network-based properties. Nevertheless, these two facets of social structure are interdependent, with friendships operating as building blocks for the development of power hierarchy in prison. Conclusion By conceptualizing social structure as a multidimensional, fluid entity, we identify the unique roles that power and friendship relations play in recreating the prison social system. We maintain that understanding social structure in prison settings can provide insight into institutional adjustments and post-release expectations.

Ethnically and racially diverse schools provide students opportunities to socially interact with both same- and cross-ethnic peers that can shape their sense of belonging within a school. This study investigates the extent to which same- or cross-ethnic friends influence feelings of school belonging in two large, diverse U.S. high schools (total N = 4,461; 9th-12th grade; 49.6% girls). Employing a longitudinal social network analytic approach, using stochastic actor-oriented modeling, this study found that students become more similar or stay similar to their same-ethnic friends, but not cross-ethnic friends, with no clear indication that students select friends based on similar levels of belonging. These novel findings highlight how feelings of school belonging are fostered through sociability in same-ethnic friend groups. Implications for interventions and other approaches to enhance school belonging are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescence represents a developmental period of marked increase in the development of ethnic-racial identity (ERI) and the importance and influence of friends. Moreover, scores of studies have revealed that ERI and friendships are influential factors in many different academic and psychosocial outcomes for adolescents. However, the development of these relations between ERI, friendships, and academic and psychosocial adjustment do not occur in a vacuum. One context that likely shapes these relations is the classroom. In the current study, we investigated how ERI and peer socialization were related to academic and social efficacy over time, and how perceptions of social-emotional learning (SEL) practices in the classroom moderated these relations among 586 American middle school youth. Our analysis tested these hypothesized effects, controlling for potentially confounding the effects of friend selection. Results indicated that more positive ethnic-racial public regard predicted gains in students' perceived social efficacy with teachers but not their perceived social efficacy with peers or academic efficacy. In the assessment of peer socialization effects, youth became increasingly similar to their peers in regard to academic efficacy, social efficacy with peers, and social efficacy with teachers over time. Moderation analyses indicated that perceptions of greater exposure to SEL practices reduced students' susceptibility to their friends' influence in social efficacy with teachers. Together, these results highlight the unique and combined impact of ERI, peer influence, and SEL in the development of adolescents' social efficacy.

Applying an abductive mixed-methods approach, we investigate the informal status systems in three women's prison units (across two prisons) and one men's prison unit. Qualitative analyses suggest "old head" narratives-where age, time in prison, sociability, and prison wisdom confer unit status-are prevalent across all four contexts. Perceptions of maternal "caregivers" and manipulative "bullies," however, are found only in the three women's units. The qualitative findings inform formal network analyses by differentiating "positive," "neutral," and "negative" status nominations, with "negative" ties primarily absent from the men's unit. Within the women's units, network analyses find that high-status women are likely to receive both positive and negative peer nominations, such that evaluations depend on who is doing the evaluating. Comparing the women's and men's networks, the correlates of positive and neutral ties are generally the same and center on covariates of age, getting along with others, race, and religion. Overall, the study points to important similarities and differences in status across the gendered prison contexts, while demonstrating how a sequential mixed-methods design can illuminate both the meaning and the structure of prison informal organization.