Increases in Network Ties Are Associated With Increased Cohesion Among Intervention Participants

Abstract

Objective Many behavior change programs are delivered in group settings to manage implementation costs and to foster support and interactions among group members to facilitate behavior change. Understanding the group dynamics that evolve in group settings (e.g., weight management, Alcoholics Anonymous) is important, yet rarely measured. This paper examined the relationship between social network ties and group cohesion in a group-based intervention to prevent obesity in children. Method The data reported are process measures from an ongoing community-based randomized controlled trial. 305 parents with a child (3-6 years) at risk of developing obesity were assigned to an intervention that taught parents healthy lifestyles. Parents met weekly for 12 weeks in small consistent groups. Two measures were collected at weeks 3 and 6: a social network survey (people in the group with whom one discusses healthy lifestyles); and the validated Perceived Cohesion Scale (Bollen & Hoyle, 1990). We used lagged random and fixed effects regression models to analyze the data. Results Cohesion increased from 6.51 to 6.71 (t=4.4, p<0.01). Network nominations tended to increase over the 3-week period in each network. In the combined discussion and advice network, the number of nominations increased from 1.76 to 1.95 (z=2.59, p<0.01). Cohesion at week 3 was the strongest predictor of cohesion at week 6 (b=0.55, p<0.01). Number of new network nominations at week 6 was positively related to cohesion at week 6 (b=0.06, p<.01). In sum, being able to name new network contacts was associated with feelings of cohesion. Conclusion This is the first study to demonstrate how network changes affect perceived group cohesion within a behavioral intervention. Given that many behavioral interventions occur in group settings, intentionally building new social networks could be promising to augment desired outcomes.

Football Team Social Structure and Perceived Support for Reporting Concussion Symptoms: Insights from a Social Network Analysis

“…These findings support earlier longitudinal research showing an association between the number of ties (degree) and perceived group cohesion. 31 Although the shared variance between our SNA-derived metrics and self-report measures was modest (ranged from .04 to .12), the empirical overlap between the SNA-derived metrics and self-report measures provides some evidence that the SNA metrics are detecting important structural features of a team's social network. 19 Our third aim concerned whether players reported similar levels of support for the reporting of concussion symptoms, or whether their perception of support differed by their social position on the team.…”

“…One of the documented advantages of using social network analysis is that it allows the simultaneous examination of team social structure and team members' self-report measures. 31 Our second aim capitalized on this dimension of SNA analysis and examined whether SNA-derived metrics were related to players' self-reported levels of football identity, team cohesiveness, and team belonging. Our exploratory analyses found that SNA measures of popularity (eigenvector centrality), connectedness (degree), and brokering (betweenness) were differentially associated with self-reported measures of belonging, cohesion, and football identity.…”

“…Athletic trainers could not only develop tailored interventions that help convince influential players about the importance of symptom reporting and help them become "role models" for other players, but also monitor the success of these efforts. 10,31,33…”

Bridging Income Generation with Group Integrated Care for cardiovascular risk reduction: Rationale and design of the BIGPIC study

“…49 Social integration, or connectedness, is a very important network characteristic that can influence health and the impact of health-related interventions. 50 This can create a social environment that is conducive to making healthier choices, enhancing medication adherence, and improving retention in care, 51 thereby maximizing the intervention's effectiveness.…”

Value of social network analysis for developing and evaluating complex healthcare interventions: a scoping review

“…Reported strengths and limitations of the application of SNA Table 3 provides an overview of the reported strengths and limitations. Of the included studies, 6 studies (24%) reported only strengths in the application of SNA for developing and evaluating complex interventions, [31][32][33][34][35][36] 1 study (4%) reported a limitation, 37 4 studies (16%) did not report any strength or limitation, [38][39][40][41] and the remaining 14 studies (56%) reported strengths as well as limitations in the application of SNA. Reported limitations of the application of SNA were focused on the study design and data collection.…”