Health Outcomes

I am involved in several projects that couple network selection processes with network effects on health outcomes. Much of this work focuses on adolescent smoking and weight-related outcomes (e.g., BMI) among students. In the series of papers on smoking and network co-evolution, we find that smoking enhances popularity (rather than popularity leading to smoking) and that friends engage in similar smoking behavior through both peer influence and peer selection processes. We extend this research in two simulation studies that investigate potential interventions and how they may vary across school contexts. I am also part of a project examining the role of friendship networks in weight-related behaviors, including physical activity and nutrition, among college freshman (SPARC). Most of this research was supported by NIH and benefitted from discussions and collaborations with jimi adams. jimi and I also edited a 2017 special issue of Network Science aiming to integrate multiple disciplinary perspectives to investigate health and networks’ co-evolutionary processes. 

• Schaefer, David R. and jimi adams. 2017. “The Coevolution of Networks and Health.” Network Science, 5:249-256.

• Haas, Steven A., David R. Schaefer and Olga Kornienko. 2010. “Health and the Structure of Adolescent Social Networks.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 51:424-439.

• Schaefer, David R., Olga Kornienko and Andrew M. Fox. 2011. “Misery Does not Love Company: Network Selection Mechanisms and Depression Homophily.” American Sociological Review, 76:764-785.

Smoking

• Schaefer, David R. Steven A. Haas, and Nicholas Bishop. 2012. “A Dynamic Model of US Adolescents’ Smoking and Friendship Networks.” American Journal of Public Health, 102:e12-e18.

• Haas, Steven A. and David R. Schaefer. 2014. “With a Little Help from My Friends? Asymmetrical Social Influence on Adolescent Smoking Initiation and Cessation.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 55:126-143.

• Schaefer, David R., jimi adams, and Steven A. Haas. 2013 “Social Networks and Smoking: Exploring the Effects of Influence and Smoker Popularity through Simulations.” Health Education and Behavior, 40:24-32.

• adams, jimi and David R. Schaefer. 2016. “How Initial Prevalence Moderates Network-Based Smoking Change: Estimating Contextual Effects with Stochastic Actor-based Models.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 57:22-38.

Weight-Related Outcomes

• Schaefer, David R. and Sandra D. Simpkins. 2014. “Using Social Network Analysis to Clarify the Role of Obesity in Adolescent Friend Selection.” American Journal of Public Health, 104:1223-1229. 

• 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.

• 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.

• Bruening, Meg, Irene van Woerden, David R. Schaefer, Daniel Hruschka, Alexandra Brewis, Corrie M. Whisner, Genevieve F. Dunton, Michael Todd, Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, Melissa N Laska. 2018. “Friendship as a Social Mechanism Influencing Body Mass Index(BMI) Among Emerging Adults.” PLoS ONE. 13(12): e0208894.

• Bruening, Meg, Punam Ohri-Vachasptai, Alexandra Brewis, Melissa Laska, Michael Todd, Daniel Hruschka, David R. Schaefer, Corrie M. Whisner, Genevieve Dunton. 2016. “Longitudinal Social Networks Impacts on Weight and Weight-Related Behaviors Assessed Using Mobile-Based Ecological Momentary Assessments: Study Protocols for the SPARC Study.” BMC Public Health 16:901.

• van Woerden, Irene, Daniel Hruschka, Sonia Vega-Lόpez, David R. Schaefer, Marc Adams and Meg Bruening. 2019. “Food Insecure College Students and Objective Measurements of their UnusedMeal Plans.” Nutrients, 11: 904.