Siblings, friends, course-mates, club-mates: How adolescent health behavior homophily varies by race, class, gender, and health status

Abstract

Many unhealthy behaviors develop during adolescence, and these behaviors can have fundamental consequences for health and mortality in adulthood. Social network structure and the degree of homophily in a network affect how health behaviors and innovations are spread. However, the degree of health behavior homophily across different social ties and within subpopulations is unknown. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by using a novel regression model to document the degree of homophily across various relationship types and subpopulations for behaviors of interest that are related to health outcomes. These patterns in health behavior homophily have implications for which behaviors and ties should be the subjects of future research and for predicting how homophily may shape health programs focused on specific subpopulations (gender, race, class, health status) or a specific social context (families, peer groups, classrooms, or school activities).

Peer Support and Mentorship in a US Rare Disease Community: Findings from the Cystinosis in Emerging Adulthood Study

“…Interacting with others within the community may mitigate the stigma of illness [47], normalize common challenges, and help patients and families consider ways to interact successfully within and outside their family of origin. Homophily [48,49] based on shared medical diagnosis creates relationships that are supportive and protective, within which patients and caregivers are welcomed and accepted rather than stigmatized, isolated, or bullied. The code 'comfortability,' which emerged as an in vivo code in this study evokes both how patients and families felt comfortable and at ease with each other, and how they are a comfort to each other during challenging times.…”

Sampling migrants from their social networks: The demography and social organization of Chinese migrants in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

“…We look specifically at homophily over nominations by ownership sector and province of origin. We use recently developed models that offer a parsimonious framework in which to examine homophily in networks, parsing out the extent to which respondents nominate within vs. between ownership sectors or provinces owing to the demography of group sizes or nomination rates (Daw, Margolis, Verdery 2015; Cameron et al 2011; DeFries-Fulker 1985). We first construct a data set comprising all pairs of individuals in the network, whether or not they share a tie and estimate the following equation (Model 1): $$\text{ln}false(\mathrm{italicpr}false(Y_i=1false)/\mathrm{italicpr}false(Y_i=0false)false)=\alpha +{\beta }_1{Y}_j+{\beta }_2{T}_{\mathit{ij}}+{\beta }_3{Y}_j{T}_{\mathit{ij}}+u_i+u_j+e_{\mathit{ij}},$$ where Yi indicates the ownership sector (SOE=1, independent migrant=0) of respondent i, Yj indicates the ownership sector of respondent j, Tij indicates whether or not respondent j nominated respondent i (or vice versa), and ui, uj, and eij are individual i, individual j, and dyad specific error terms.…”

Involving immigrant religious organizations in HIV/AIDS prevention: The role of bonding and bridging social capital

“…This tendency to develop ties with similar others, called homophily, creates more bonding social capital. In contrast, heterophily, the tendency to develop ties with people who have different attributes, creates more bridging social capital (Daw et al, 2015; McPherson and Smith-Lovin, 1987; McPherson et al, 2001). …”

“…Ties formed by values describe the tendency to associate with others who hold similar or dissimilar beliefs regardless of status (Lazarsfield and Merton, 1964). While most research on homophily or heterophily has focused on individual characteristics of status or values, only a few studies have examined how contextual factors, such as organizational membership can affect an individual’s preferences to form ties (Daw et al, 2015; Glanville et al, 2004; McPherson and Smith-Lovin, 1987). Ties formed by contexts describe the tendency to associate with others who are with the same or different organization or community (e.g.…”