The Use of Social Network Analyses to Understand the Role of the Family Environment on Individual Health Behaviors

Health behavior research has largely predicted individual health behaviors by assessing the impact that determinants at various levels of analysis have on such behaviors. Social Network Analysis (SNA) methods allow investigators to understand how individual behavior choices develop and become normative within a social context. SNA research accounts for the individual’s environment as a network of linked individuals. Thus, SNA research allows researchers to describe the patterns of interactions that individuals perceive within their social network to comprehend how these interactions may influence, for instance, their health behaviors. Social network analyses investigations are currently adapting advances in computer science technologies that allow researchers to visually depict the social networks of individuals and how such networks influence individual conditions.

This presentation will demonstrate the application of SNA assessment methods to the field of family dynamics in order to investigate the potential effects that family social relationships may have on individual health decision making processes, and the evolvement of individual health practices. The presentation will discuss SNA methods of assessment to understand how individuals perceive and cognitively represent the family networks that surround them; and how these perceptions inform their individual health knowledge and behaviors. The application of SNA methods will be discussed and demonstrated through two case studies which have utilized such methods to inquire how family network dynamics inform the development of health promotion practices, emotional regulation, and healthy lifestyle choices.