The Effects of Friendship Network Popularity on Depressive Symptoms During Early Adolescence: Moderation by Fear of Negative Evaluation and Gender investigates how friendship network popularity is correlated to depressive symptoms in early adolescence. In this study, 367 students …show more content…
129 undergraduate students in a residence hall were given a web based survey on substance use, exercise, and were asked to identify ten students in the residence hall that they associated with. Researchers were trying to find a linkage between students and their peers behavioral patterns. Results showed that peers influence one another in relation to alcohol consumption and marijuana use but not …show more content…
From this assignment and analyzing these articles I have learned more about the SNA research method. Closeness centrality and ties has a major influence in who we are as individuals, which is a key component that these articles all portrayed. After carefully analyzing these three articles I have found at least potential flaw or extraneous variable in each study. In The Effects of Friendship Network Popularity on Depressive Symptoms During Early Adolescence: Moderation by Fear of Negative Evaluation and Gender, the validity of the researchers results is questionable. They choose to conduct research on a relatively younger population, and the participants mean age was eleven. In class we have discussed that young children are a vulnerable population in research because most young children can not fully comprehend the study and give their consent. In Peer Associations for substance Use and Exercise in a college student Social Network, Researchers collected data by asking the students to list the names of friends which they were closest to. I believe this method of collecting data would break a code of ethics by infringing upon a student's confidentiality because the student is asked to release another's name without consent. In The Gender Difference in Social Network Development Via Mobile Phone Text Messages: A Longitude Study, researchers offered undergraduate students one extra course credit for their