Katherine Stovel

Chains of Affection: The Structure of Adolescent Romantic and Sexual Networks 1

This article describes the structure of the adolescent romantic and sexual network in a population of over 800 adolescents residing in a midsized town in the midwestern United States. Precise images and measures of network structure are derived from reports of relationships that occurred over a period of 18 months between 1993 and 1995. The study offers a comparison of the structural characteristics of the observed network to simulated networks conditioned on the distribution of ties; the observed structure reveals networks characterized by longer contact chains and fewer cycles than expected. This article identifies the micromechanisms that generate networks with structural features similar to the observed network. Implications for disease transmission dynamics and social policy are explored.

Ascription into Achievement: Models of Career Systems at Lloyds Bank, 1890-1970

Optimal matching algorithms are used to model the transformation of career systems in a large British bank (Lloyds) from 1890 to 1970. The authors first model the breakdown of the traditional ascriptive, status-based system, and then identify a more dynamic, achievement-based system, and then identify a more dynamic, achievement-based system as its replacement. By relating the structure of careers to organizational growth and social change, the authors explore how the modern achievement career came about. More broadly, they argue that optimal matching enables one to see clearly the multiple time frames that are necessarily intercalated into career systems and hence provides new insights into the discontinuous and contingent nature of organizational change.

Is condom use habit forming?: Condom use at sexual debut and subsequent condom use.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess whether using a condom at adolescent sexual debut is associated with an increased likelihood of subsequent condom use. Study Design: A nationally representative sample was used, including 4024 sexually active adolescents (12–18 years) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Logistic regression was used to model the association of condom use at sexual debut on condom use at most recent sex (mean interval, 23 months). Results: Condom use at adolescent sexual debut was associated with a twofold increased likelihood of condom use during most recent sex (odds ratio, 2.28; 95% confidence interval, 1.91–2.73). Conclusions: Among adolescents, early condom use is associated with an increased likelihood of subsequent condom use.

Becoming a Nazi: A model for narrative networks

Abstract This article illustrates a strategy for representing and analyzing narratives as networks. The strategy that we use considers narrative sequences as networks. Elements are treated as nodes which are connected by narrative clauses, represented by arcs. By representing complex event sequences as networks, inducing ‘narrative networks’, it is possible to observe and measure new structural features of narratives. The narratives we focus on are autobiographical accounts of becoming, and being, a Nazi. The substantive idea that we develop in this article is that the observable narrative structure of life stories can provide insight into the process of identity formation. We illustrate our approach to narrative networks by analyzing a single story that, in conjunction with the analysis of other stories, yields a set of insights into becoming and being .

Association Between Condom Use at Sexual Debut and Subsequent Sexual Trajectories: A Longitudinal Study Using Biomarkers

OBJECTIVES We compared subsequent sexual behaviors and risk of sexually transmitted infections among adolescents who did and did not use a condom at their sexual debut. METHODS We derived data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which followed a sample of 4018 sexually active adolescents between 1994 and 2002. During waves I, II, and III of the study, data on sexual behavior were gathered, and at wave III urine specimens were collected to test for sexually transmitted infections. RESULTS Among interviewed adolescents, those who reported condom use at their debut were more likely than those who did not use condoms at their debut to report condom use at their most recent intercourse (on average 6.8 years after sexual debut), and they were only half as likely to test positive for chlamydia or gonorrhea (adjusted odds ratio=0.50; 95% confidence interval=0.26, 0.95). Reported lifetime numbers of sexual partners did not differ between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS Adolescents who use condoms at their sexual debut do not report more sexual partners, are more likely to engage in subsequent protective behaviors, and experience fewer sexually transmitted infections than do adolescents who do not use condoms at their sexual debut.

Local Sequential Patterns: The Structure of Lynching in the Deep South, 1882–1930

White-on-black violence was a fact of life in the Deep South during the decades straddling the turn of the century. Yet though the lynching of blacks is historically significant, it was, statistically speaking, a relatively rare event. While each lynching is associated with a complex and often gruesome narrative, particularities often overwhelm efforts to reveal anything other than broad structural determinants or proximate causes. Efforts to apply narrative methods have been limited to the analysis of a single lynching incident, and yield more insight into patterns of interaction than into the phenomena of lynching as a whole. This article offers a new analytic description of the temporal structure of local lynching histories in the Deep South between 1882 and 1930. Sequential analysis reveals robust variation in the temporal pattern of local lynching; interpretation of the finite set of patterns of lynching histories focuses on the sequential consequences of various microlevel mechanisms, and demonstrates the advantages of moving beyond the analysis of discrete incidents.

Stabilizing brokerage

A variety of social and economic arrangements exist to facilitate the exchange of goods, services, and information over gaps in social structure. Each of these arrangements bears some relationship to the idea of brokerage, but this brokerage is rarely like the pure and formal economic intermediation seen in some modern markets. Indeed, for reasons illuminated by existing sociological and economic models, brokerage is a fragile relationship. In this paper, we review the causes of instability in brokerage and identify three social mechanisms that can stabilize fragile brokerage relationships: social isolation, broker capture, and organizational grafting. Each of these mechanisms rests on the emergence or existence of supporting institutions. We suggest that organizational grafting may be the most stable and effective resolution to the tensions inherent in brokerage, but it is also the most institutionally demanding.

Likelihoods for fixed rank nomination networks

Many studies that gather social network data use survey methods that lead to censored, missing, or otherwise incomplete information. For example, the popular fixed rank nomination (FRN) scheme, often used in studies of schools and businesses, asks study participants to nominate and rank at most a small number of contacts or friends, leaving the existence of other relations uncertain. However, most statistical models are formulated in terms of completely observed binary networks. Statistical analyses of FRN data with such models ignore the censored and ranked nature of the data and could potentially result in misleading statistical inference. To investigate this possibility, we compare Bayesian parameter estimates obtained from a likelihood for complete binary networks with those obtained from likelihoods that are derived from the FRN scheme, and therefore accommodate the ranked and censored nature of the data. We show analytically and via simulation that the binary likelihood can provide misleading inference, particularly for certain model parameters that relate network ties to characteristics of individuals and pairs of individuals. We also compare these different likelihoods in a data analysis of several adolescent social networks. For some of these networks, the parameter estimates from the binary and FRN likelihoods lead to different conclusions, indicating the importance of analyzing FRN data with a method that accounts for the FRN survey design.

Condom use at sexual debut and subsequent condom use: a test of the imprinting hypothesis

Conclusions: Among sexually active adolescents using a condom during sexual debut is strongly associated with subsequent use which supports the imprinting hypothesis. Therefore early sexual education messages emphasizing condom use may be particularly important and hopefully effective at establishing a norm of regular condom use behavior thereby protecting adolescents from STIs and reducing levels of STIs in the adolescent population. (excerpt)

Commitments and Contests How Preferential Association Produces Equity

This article offers a contribution to the broader theoretical goal of increasing our systematic understanding of the social mechanisms that underlie collective behavior. Specifically, we ask how it is possible that equity can arise in a market situation. Even though fair outcomes can be observed across a wide range of social situations that are not centrally coordinated, we argue that there is scant understanding of how these outcomes are facilitated and what impact they have on interaction patterns. We use experimental game theory to test two mechanisms of preferential association, which is defined as a situation where there is competition for partners and in which two actors have a preference for each other. The first mechanism, committed partnership, is abundant in social life and is exemplified by friendships. The second mechanism, competitive altruism, is the intuitive idea that to secure a desirable matching, one must display desirable behavior. To test the mechanisms, we use a laboratory experiment in which participants play a version of the well-known repeated Ultimatum Game. In our version of the game, players either (a) play each other randomly, (b) according to reputation, or (c) according to preferential association in which players are matched according to a preferred ranking of past player histories. The results suggest that fairness can arise from the reduced risk associated with committing to a desirable partner. This is a study of micro-to-micro mechanisms, investigating the micro-level conditions that produce a particular type of social action, namely, a sustainable equitable division of offerings.