The Evolution of Youth Friendship Networks from 6th to 12th Grade: School Transitions, Popularity and Centrality

Felmlee, Diane; McMillan, Cassie; Rodis, Paulina Inara; Osgood, D. Wayne

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-71544-5_8

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…All but one of the districts in our sample have two separate grade cohorts. Other research that analyzes the PROSPER Peers data examines the less common transition from sixth to seventh grade (experienced by 35.3 percent) and its effect on multiple measures of social network centrality (Felmlee et al 2018), and Temkin and colleagues (2015) studied additional aspects of friendship networks over a shorter time span. These studies reached similar conclusions to those obtained here for social integration.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Falling Behind: Lingering Costs of the High School Transition for Youth Friendships and Grades

et al. 2018

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This study investigates the influence of structural transitions to high school on adolescents’ friendship networks and academic grades from 6th through 12th grade, in a direct comparison of students who do and do not transition. We utilize data from 14,462 youth in 51 networks from 26 districts (Promoting School–Community Partnerships to Enhance Resilience). Results underscore the challenging nature of compulsory school changes. Students that structurally transition to high school between eighth and ninth grade, as compared with those who do not, receive fewer friendship nominations following the move and are more likely to become isolates, according to a three-level Poisson model. Students who transition also report significantly lower odds of obtaining high grades after the shift, and these penalties persist throughout high school. Our findings highlight the social and academic difficulties associated with this particular normative adolescent life transition and point to a disruption in social network ties as part of the problem.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Falling Behind: Lingering Costs of the High School Transition for Youth Friendships and Grades

et al. 2018

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“…To the extent that victimization harms social relationships, it stands as an additional consequence of sexual violence. The possibility that victims may not have access to friendships and peer support can be problematic, as peer networks are central to healthy adolescent development (see Felmlee et al, 2018b; Johnson, Crosnoe, & Elder, 2011). Friendships become much more meaningful during the teen years, and friends can serve as important sources of support and companionship for young victims of sexual violence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forcible Rape and Adolescent Friendship Networks

Tomlinson

Mears

Turanovic

et al. 2018

J Interpers Violence

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Studies have found that sexual victimization can adversely affect an adolescent's psychological well-being, physical health, and behavior. Little is known, however, about how friendships are influenced by such victimization. Drawing on research on sexual violence and the salience of peers among adolescents, the current study extends prior work by examining the effects of forcible rape on adolescent social networks. Using a subsample of females from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health ( N = 4,386), the study employs multivariate regression analyses to estimate the effects of youth forcible rape on the popularity, centrality, and density of adolescent friendship networks and to determine whether depression and attachment to others (e.g., to friends and to school) mediate these effects. The analyses indicated that forcible rape was associated with a decrease in the popularity and centrality of females within their friendship networks; however, no effect on the density of these networks was identified. In addition, forcible rape effects on popularity and centrality were partially mediated by depression and social attachments. The results suggest that forcible rape may adversely affect adolescent females' levels of popularity and centrality within their friendship networks. Combined with prior research, the results indicate that the harmful effects of rape have the potential to extend across diverse domains, including social relationships. This possibility suggests that services and assistance to female adolescents may be useful in navigating these relationships after victimization. It suggests, too, that potential benefits that may arise from interventions that educate adolescents-victims and nonvictims alike-about the challenges that victims of sexual violence experience.

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“…Too much network instability, however, can lead to the measured network characteristics becoming decoupled from longer term outcomes. Adolescent social networks exhibit substantial instability (Faris and Felmlee ; Felmlee et al ; Hallinan and Williams ). While very close friendships and the tightly clustered friendship cliques are relatively stable over the time period in this study, weaker ties and looser groupings are much less stable (Değirmencioğlu et al ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While very close friendships and the tightly clustered friendship cliques are relatively stable over the time period in this study, weaker ties and looser groupings are much less stable (Değirmencioğlu et al ). This can lead to substantial variability in measures of network centrality over time, particularly in earlier grades and across educational transitions (Değirmencioğlu et al ; Felmlee et al ). We do not see differential predictive value for any of our measures of interest when running additional models separating students into higher and lower grades, but it is possible that all of them are below the necessary threshold for network stability to observe significant relationships.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Popular Kids Don't Matter: Centrality and Influence on Adolescent Behavior

Malacarne

2019

Sociological Inquiry

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This study examines the widely held belief that socially central individuals are disproportionately influential in their networks. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, it models the association between four behavioral outcomes and two distinct specifications of the behaviors' relationship to network prominence. This study finds little evidence that sociometrically central individuals are more influential than randomly chosen peers from the same network when predicting drinking, smoking, and sports participation. Students resemble their peers in systematic ways, but it is unlikely that this is because central students serve as a reference for the group or because students adjust their actions based on the social rewards that they observe given their position in a social network.

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The Evolution of Youth Friendship Networks from 6th to 12th Grade: School Transitions, Popularity and Centrality

Cited by 9 publications

References 65 publications

Falling Behind: Lingering Costs of the High School Transition for Youth Friendships and Grades

Falling Behind: Lingering Costs of the High School Transition for Youth Friendships and Grades

Forcible Rape and Adolescent Friendship Networks

The Popular Kids Don't Matter: Centrality and Influence on Adolescent Behavior

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