Comparing the measurement of different social networks

__Background:__ Technological progress has enabled researchers to use new unobtrusive measures of relationships between actors in social network analysis. However, research on how these unobtrusive measures of peer connections relate to traditional sociometric nominations in adolescents is scarce. Therefore, the current study compared traditional peer nominated networks with more unobtrusive measures of peer connections: Communication networks that consist of instant messages in an online social platform and proximity networks based on smartphones' Bluetooth signals that measure peer proximity. The three social network types were compared in their coverage, stability, overlap, and the extent to which the networks exhibit the often observed sex segregation in adolescent social networks. __Method:__ Two samples were derived from the MyMovez project: a longitudinal sample of 444 adolescents who participated in the first three waves of the first year of the project (Y1; 51% male; Mage = 11.29, SDage = 1.26) and a cross-sectional sample of 774 adolescents that participated in fifth wave in the third year (Y3; 48% male; Mage = 10.76, SDage = 1.23). In the project, all participants received a research smartphone and a wrist-worn accelerometer. On the research smartphone, participants received daily questionnaires such as peer nomination questions (i.e., nominated networ

Children’s Emotions after Exposure to News: Investigating Chat Conversations with Peers as a Coping Strategy

Hardly any research has been conducted regarding coping strategies that children can use in response to negative news, although they are frequently exposed to and emotionally affected by such news. Chat conversations with peers about the news could be a coping strategy for children in this regard. To investigate this, children (N = 307; 46.3% girls; Mage = 10.51; SDage = 0.98; range 8–13 years old) participated in a preregistered experiment in which their emotions were measured before and after exposure to a news video on a smar

The reciprocal effects of physical activity and happiness in adolescents

Background Positive associations exist between physical activity and happiness in adolescents. However, previous studies have mostly used self-reported measures and cross-sectional designs. There is a need for more insight into the directionality and duration of this association. The current study was the first to investigate whether an increase in physical activity leads to happiness and whether adolescents become more physically active when they are happier. These two effects were studied between (on a day-to-day

The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Children’s Dietary Behaviors

Over the past years vlogs rapidly have become an attractive platform for food industries, sponsoring social media influencers to promote their products. As with more traditional media, social media influencers predominantly promote unhealthy drinks and foods that are high in sugar, fat, and salt – consumption of which may increase the risk of overweight, obesity, and non-communicable diseases. The aim of the current Brief Research Report is to examine the impact of vlogs on children’s unhealthy dietary behaviors. Drawing on longitudinal survey data from 453 8- to 12-year-old children, we analyzed the longitudinal relations between children’s frequency of watching vlogs and their consumption of unhealthy beverages and snacks. Structural path modeling analyses of three waves of data with 1-year intervals showed that children’s self-reported frequency of watching vlogs influenced consumption of unhealthy beverages 2 years later. The analyses did not yield significant relat

Testing a Social Network Intervention Using Vlogs to Promote Physical Activity Among Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Trial

There is a need to stimulate physical activity among adolescents, but unfortunately, they are hard to reach with traditional mass media interventions. A promising alternative is to carry out social network interventions. In social network interventions, a small group of individuals (influence agents) is selected to promote health-related behaviors within their social network. This study investigates whether a social network intervention is more effective to promote physical activity, compared to a mass media intervention and no intervention. Ad

Promoting water consumption among Dutch children: an evaluation of the social network intervention Share H2 O

Background: There is a need to develop and improve interventions promoting healthy drinking behaviors among children. A promising method could be to stimulate peer influence within children’s social networks. In the Share H2O social network intervention (SNI), peer influence was utilized by selecting a subset of influential children and training them as ‘influence agents’ to promote water consumption—as an alternative to SSBs. Previous research has mainly focused on the process of selecting influence agents. However, the process of motivating influence agents to promote the behavior has hardly received any research attention. Therefore, in the SNI Share H2O SNI, this motivation process was emphasized and grounded in the self-determination t

Promoting Water Consumption among Children: A Three-Arm Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial Testing a Social Network Intervention

Objective: To test the effectiveness of a social network intervention (SNI) to improve children's healthy drinking behaviors. Design: A three-arm cluster randomized control trial design was used. In the SNI, a subset of children were selected and trained as 'influence agents' to promote water consumption-as an alternative to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs)-among their peers. In the active control condition, all children were simultaneously exposed to the benefits of water consumption. The control condition received no intervention. Setting: 11 schools in the Netherlands. Participants: 451 children (M age = 10.74, SD age =.97; 50.8% girls). Results: Structural path models showed that children exposed to the SNI consumed.20 less SSBs per day compared to those in the control condition (β =.25, p =.035). There was a trend showing that children exposed to the SNI consumed.17 less SSBs per day than those in the active control condition (β =.20, p =.061). No differences were found between conditions for water consumption. However, t

Exploring the directionality in the relationship between descriptive and injunctive parental and peer norms and snacking behavior in a three-year-cross-lagged study

BACKGROUND: People's eating behavior is assumed to be influenced by what other people do (perceived descriptive norms) and what others approve of (perceived injunctive norms). It has been suggested that adolescents are more susceptible to peer norms than parental norms, because they experience a strong need for group acceptance that leads to conforming to peer group norms. The current study examined changes in snacking behavior and four types of social norms (i.e., parental and peer descriptive and injunctive norms) that promoted fruit and vegetable intake among adolescents. This study was the first to examine whether snacking behavior also influenced norm perceptions by testing the directionality of these associations. METHODS: The study consisted of 819 participants (M [SD] age = 11.19 [1.36]; 46.1% boys), collected at three time points (T1 = 2016, T2 = 2017 and T3 = 2018) during the MyMovez project. Self-reported frequency of snack consumption, perceived parental and peer descriptive a

Understanding the complexities of Bluetooth for representing real-life social networks: A methodology for inferring and validating Bluetooth-based social network graphs

Bluetooth (BT) data has been extensively used for recognizing social patterns and inferring social networks, as BT is widely present in everyday technological devices. However, even though collecting BT data is subject to random noise and may result in substantial measurement errors, there is an absence of rigorous procedures for validating the quality of the inferred BT social networks. This paper presents a methodology for inferring and validating BT-based social networks based on parameter optimization algorithm and social network analysis (SNA). The algorithm performs edge inference in a brute-force search over a given BT data set, for deriving optimal BT social networks by validating them with predefined ground truth (GT) networks. The algorithm seeks to optimize a set of parameters, predefined considering some reliability challenges associated to the BT technology itself. The outcomes show that optimizing the parameters can reduce the number of BT data false positives or generate BT networks with the minimum amount of BT data observations. The subsequent SNA shows that the inferred BT social networks are unable to reproduce some network characteristics present in the corresponding GT networks. Finally, the generalizability of the proposed methodology is demonstrated by applying the algorithm on external BT data sets, while obtaining comparable results