Statistics in the Social Sciences:The Best of Two Worlds

Hoe kun je statistiek gebruiken als brug tussen wetenschappelijke theorieën en onderzoeksdata? Deze vraag fascineert Marijtje van Duijn mateloos. Twee wereldenAls statisticus binnen de vakgroep sociologie vormt Marijtje van Duijn de schakel tussen onderzoeksvragen en data. Van Duijn: “In onderzoek moeten de onderzoeksvraag en de statistische modellen uiteraard goed op elkaar aansluiten, maar het is ook belangrijk om te kijken in hoeverre de onderzoeksvraag met de data beantwoord wordt of kan worden”. Deze link tussen theorie en empirie staat dan ook centraal haar oratie.Sociale netwerkanalyseVan Duijns specialisatie is de zogeheten sociale netwerkanalyse, een methode die het mogelijk maakt om relaties tussen mensen te analyseren. “Bij sociologie wordt veel onderzoek naar sociale netwerken gedaan. De structuur van deze netwerken vereist een speciale aanpak, want een normale regressie analyse is niet mogelijk. Als groep zijn we de afgelopen twintig jaar heel hard bezig geweest met het ontwikkelen van methoden die recht doen aan de complexiteit van deze netwerken”.PuzzelenStatistische modellen voor sociale netwerkanalyse staan bekend als niet eenvoudig uit te voeren en te interpreteren, maar dat is juist wat van Duijn aantrekt. “Het zijn inderdaad soms ingewikkelde analyses. En ook de vraagstellingen zijn complex. Het is niet rechttoe rechtaan, maar het is een uitdagende puzzel. Ik vind het leuk om samen met de onderzoekers te kijken hoe we hun vragen zo goed mogelijk kunnen beantwoorden”

The achievement gap in Indonesia? Organizational and ideological differences between private Islamic schools

This study examines the effects of different types of private Islamic schools on student achievement and achievement gaps. We formulate hypotheses, drawing on an education production function approach that outlines differences in investment and resource allocation decisions across these tracks and streams. We tested our hypotheses using Indonesian data collected in 2013 on 156,952 students nested in 3,150 schools in 366 municipalities. Using multilevel regression analyses, we found that student achievement and achievement gaps vary over private Islamic school tracks and streams. Even though student achievement and achievement gaps are strongly determined by student and family characteristics, our findings suggest that differences between school tracks and streams also play an important role. Moreover, our study revealed a large variability in student achievement and achievement gaps between municipalities

Balance in Family Triads:How Intergenerational Relationships Affect the Adult Sibling Relationship

In order to understand the interdependency between intergenerational and adult sibling relationships, a family systems perspective is applied to identify a smaller?empirically analyzable?relational unit of analysis, that is, the sibling?parent?sibling triad. Using balance theory, triadic configurations are derived that represent enhancement, compensation, and loyalty conflicts. The hypotheses are tested for three relational dimensions: support exchange, contact, and conflict. Multilevel analyses of 549 sibling?parent?sibling triads from the Netherlands Kinship Panel data show strong evidence for enhancement, whereas some indication was obtained for sibling relationships being affected by loyalty conflicts. The results underscore and substantiate interdependency between intergenerational and adult sibling relationships

No Longer Discrete:Modeling the Dynamics of Social Networks and Continuous Behavior

The dynamics of individual behavior are related to the dynamics of the social structures in which individuals are embedded. This implies that in order to study social mechanisms such as social selection or peer influence, we need to model the evolution of social networks and the attributes of network actors as interdependent processes. The stochastic actor-oriented model is a statistical approach to study network-attribute coevolution based on longitudinal data. In its standard specification, the coevolving actor attributes are assumed to be measured on an ordinal categorical scale. Continuous variables first need to be discretized to fit into such a modeling framework. This article presents an extension of the stochastic actor-oriented model that does away with this restriction by using a stochastic differential equation to model the evolution of a continuous attribute. We propose a measure for explained variance and give an interpretation of parameter sizes. The proposed method is illustrated by a study of the relationship between friendship, alcohol consumption, and self-esteem among adolescents

Psychoeducation for hypochondriasis:A comparison of a cognitive-behavioural approach and a problem-solving approach

In this study, two 6-week psychoeducational courses for hypochondriasis are compared, one based on the cognitive-behavioural approach, and the other on the problem-solving approach. Effects of both courses on hypochondriacal complaints, depression, trait anxiety, and number of problems encountered in daily life, are measured pre-treatment, posttreatment, and at 1- and 6-month follow-up. Participants (N = 48, of whom 4 dropped out), suffering from DSM-IV hypochondriasis, were randomized into one of the two course conditions. Results showed beneficial effects of both courses. Few differential treatment effects were found: in both conditions all effect measures decreased significantly over time (p <0.01). However, between- and inter-individual variability in decrease-patterns was of considerable size, leading to large deviations from the mean pattern. Acceptability and feasibility of both courses were rated highly by their respective participants. It is concluded that both courses can be considered equally beneficial and effective over time, with the effects evident immediately after treatment and maintained over the follow-up period. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Do Attachment Style and Emotion Regulation Strategies Indicate Distress in Predictive Testing?

Predictive genetic testing for a neurogenetic disorder evokes strong emotions, and may lead to distress. The aim of this study is to investigate whether attachment style and emotion regulation strategies are associated with distress in persons who present for predictive testing for a neurogenetic disorder, and whether these psychological traits predict distress after receiving test results. Self-report scales were used to assess attachment insecurity (anxiety and avoidance) and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing) in adults at 50 % risk for Huntington’s Disease (HD), Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL), and Hereditary Cerebral Hemorrhage With Amyloidosis - Dutch type (HCHWA-D), when they presented for predictive testing. Distress was measured before testing and twice (within 2 months and between 6 and 8 months) after receiving test results. Pearson correlations and linear regression were used to analyz

Feedback About a Person’s Social Context - Personal Networks and Daily Social Interactions

The social context of a person, meaning their social relationships and daily social interactions, is an important factor for understanding their mental health. However, personalised feedback approaches to psychotherapy do not consider this factor sufficiently yet. Therefore, we developed an interactive feedback prototype focusing specifically on a person’s social relationships as captured with personal social networks (PSN) and daily social interactions as captured with experience sampling methodology (ESM). We describe the development of the prototype as well as two evaluation studies: Semi-structured interviews with students (N = 23) and a focus group discussion with five psychotherapy patients. Participants from both studies considered the prototype useful. The students considered participation in our study, which included social context assessment via PSN and ESM as well as a feedback session, insightful. However, it remains unclear how much insight the feedback procedure generated for the students beyond the insights they already gained from the assessments. The focus group patients indicated that in a clinical context, (social context) feedback may be especially useful to generate insight for the clinician and facilitate collaboration between patient and clinician. Furthermore, it became clear that the current feedback prototype requires explanations by a researcher or trained clinician and cannot function as a stand-alone intervention. As such, we discuss our feedback prototype as a starting point for future research and clinical implementation