Child & Adolescent Activities

Much social network activity centers around activities of some sort. For children and adolescents these typically take the form of extracurricular activities, for instance sports, or informal socializing and play. Such foci serve as a context to meet new people and strengthen ongoing relationships. I’ve worked primarily with my good colleague Sandi Simpkins on these projects. Several of these papers aim to test the strength of this association, while accounting for other factors that also bring people together. In some of our more recent work we examine the power of activities to reduce race/ethnic friendship segregation. We are also presently looking into how friendships may affect adolescents’ choice of activities, which is something I’ve found in preschoolers (with implications for gender development).

• Schaefer, David R. Sandra D. Simpkins, Andrea E. Vest, and Chara D. Price. 2011. “The Contribution of Extracurricular Activities to Adolescent Friendships: New Insights through Social Network Analysis.” Developmental Psychology 47:1141-1152.

• Schaefer, David R., Sandra D. Simpkins, and Andrea Vest Ettekal. 2018. “Can Extracurricular Activities Reduce Adolescent Race/Ethnic Friendship Segregation?” In D. Alwin, D. Felmlee, & D. Kreager (Eds.), Social networks and the life course (pp. 315-339). New York, NY: Springer. 

• Ettekal, Andrea Vest, Sandra D. Simpkins, and David R. Schaefer. 2019. “Obesity and Social Marginalization: When Do Organized Activities Facilitate or Hinder PeerRelationships?” Applied Developmental Science, 23: 132-143.

• Simpkins, Sandra D., David R. Schaefer, Chara D. Price and Andrea E. Vest. 2013. “Adolescent Friendships, Obesity, and Physical Activity: Untangling Selection and Socialization through Longitudinal Social Network Analysis.” Journal of Research on Adolescence, 23:537-549.

• Martin, Carol L., Olga Kornienko, David R. Schaefer, Laura D. Hanish, Richard A. Fabes, and Priscilla Goble. 2013. “The Role of Sex of Peers and Gender-Typed Activities in Young Children’s Peer Affiliative Networks: A Longitudinal Analysis of Selection and Influence.” Child Development, 84:921-937.