1,720,995 research outputs found
Bachelor and Master Theses 2018-2019
No full textHere you can find the pre-registrations for all theses of Bachelor students developmental psychology in the academic year 2018-201
Eara 2018 - Friendships experiences of lonely adolescents, or why we should make better graphs
No full textPowerpoint slides for my presentation in the EARA 2018 session "Understanding social problems with different study designs".
The intention was to present you the results of some social network analyses, but that escalated quickly into a demonstration on why including more information in graphs is crucial if we want to learn the truth about human behavior.
Most of what I presented is derived from what I learned from Gert Stulp (https://www.gertstulp.com/)
Loneliness and social interaction dynamics: An ambulatory assessment study in a student population
No full textLoneliness is the feeling associated with a perceived lack of qualitative and quantitative aspects of social relationships. Loneliness is thus evidently intwined with individuals’ social behaviors in day-to-day life. Yet, little is known about the bidirectional pathways between loneliness and social interactions in daily life. In this study, we thus investigate (a) how loneliness predicts the frequency and duration of social interactions and (b) how frequency and duration of social interactions predict changes in loneliness. We examine these questions using fine-grained ambulatory-assessed sensor data of student’s social behavior covering 10 weeks (N_participants = 45, N_observations = 74,645). Before (T1) and after (T2) the ambulatory assessment phase, participants completed the UCLA loneliness scale, covering subscales on intimate, relational, and collective loneliness. Using multistate survival models, we show that T1 loneliness subscales are not significantly associated with differences in social interaction frequency and duration– only relational loneliness predicted shorter social interaction encounters. In predicting changes in loneliness subscales (T1-T2), only the mean duration of social interactions was negatively associated with collective loneliness. Thus, effects of loneliness on the structure of social interactions may be small or limited to specific forms of loneliness, implying that the quality of interactions may be more important
Social challenges: Loneliness in the transition from primary to secondary education during the COVID-19 pandemic
No full textPre-analysis preregistration for project: Social challenges: Loneliness in the transition from primary to secondary education during the COVID-19 pandemic
Based on the template https://osf.io/t6m9v/, adapted for pre-analysis purposes.
A. HYPOTHESIS
Early adolescence is characterized by many challenges. The transition from primary to secondary education is one of the most significant challenges. The transition to secondary education entails entering a large, new peer environment which may disrupt existing social relationships and can lead to feelings of loneliness in the new peer group (Benner & Graham, 2009; Felmlee et al., 2018). This social challenge could be especially difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which adolescents were temporarily physically isolated from their peers. Already in the early stages of COVID-19, government agencies, media and healthcare workers expressed their concerns about rising loneliness (Singh & Singh, 2020), in particular for early adolescents (YoungMinds, 2020). Thus, early adolescents transitioning to secondary education during the COVID-19 may be at particular risk for increased loneliness.
Despite the increasing attention for loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, existing studies show mixed results leaving room for ambiguity. Moreover, studies on loneliness among children and (early) adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic are limited (see for an exception: Ellis, Dumas, & Forbes, 2020). Adding to this, most studies focused on general changes in loneliness over the COVID-19 pandemic, not taking into account individual differences in social status. We argue that the magnitude of the risk on increased loneliness may depend on peer status pre-corona. Besides the social challenges that COVID-19 has brought, early adolescents also have to face other social challenges, such as the transition from primary to secondary education. We argue that early adolescents with a higher peer status in terms of acceptance, and popularity rather than rejection and victimization may react differently to these social challenges compared with early adolescents with an average or lower peer status. In addition, the magnitude of the risk on increased loneliness may relate to the amount and type of contact early adolescents had with their friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. Feelings of loneliness might increase especially for early adolescents who had little contact with friends or more online compared rather than face to face contact with friends during physical isolation.
Figure 1 visualizes the research model. We use data of two waves. The first wave was conducted in January and February 2020 when the early adolescents were in their last year of primary education (T1). At this time, the schools were still open. The second wave was conducted in October and November 2020, roughly six weeks after the early adolescents transitioned to secondary education. Wave two included questions about two time-points. First, retrospective questions were included on the school closure in primary education due to COVID-19 in March, April, and May 2020 (T2). Second, questions were asked regarding the moment of undertaking the survey (T3).
We aim to examine whether peer status predicts trajectories of loneliness in early adolescence in the transition from primary to secondary education during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, we will examine the general development of loneliness over the school closure during COVID-19 and the transition from primary to secondary education. Second, we will estimate different peer groups based on peer acceptance, peer rejection, popularity, and peer victimization at T1. Third, we will examine how these peer groups differ in trajectories of loneliness in the transition from primary to secondary education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fourth, we will explore whether different profiles of amount and type of contact during the school closure can be distinguished, and if so, we will explore how these adolescents with different contact profiles differ in trajectories of loneliness in the transition from primary to secondary education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hypotheses
Measures of physical isolation such as the school closure complicate social contact and therefore may lead to increased loneliness. Already in the early stages of COVID-19, government agencies, media and healthcare workers expressed their concerns about rising loneliness (Singh & Singh, 2020), in particular for early adolescents (YoungMinds, 2020). However, current scientific evidence on the development of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic shows mixed results. Whereas some studies find an increase in loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, these studies often have major limitations such as comparing cross-sectional data with a pre-existing different sample (Killgore et al., 2020), using qualitative measures (Idoiaga Mondragon et al., 2020), using online searchers rather than self-reports (Brodeur et al., 2020) or consisting of a literature review of pre-existing literature on the effects of quarantine (Brooks et al., 2020). Other studies found no increases in loneliness (Folk et al., 2020; Fried et al., 2020; Luchetti et al., 2020; Tull et al., 2020), (very) small increases (Jacobson et al., 2020; Lee et al., 2020; McGinty et al., 2020) or temporary increases in loneliness during physical isolation (Buecker et al., 2020). Nevertheless, studies on loneliness of early adolescents during the pandemic are limited. Considering that younger adults report more loneliness during the pandemic than older adults (Luchetti et al., 2020; McGinty et al., 2020) and the belief that only young adults but also early adolescents would be worse off, we expect a small general increase in loneliness for early adolescents during the school closure.
Regarding the transition to secondary education, we expect an increase in loneliness after the transition to secondary education compared to the first measure in primary education. Although entering secondary education might create opportunities for establishing new friendships, research shows that the transition to secondary education generally disrupts existing social relationships and can lead to feelings of loneliness in the new peer group (Benner & Graham, 2009; Felmlee et al., 2018).
We expect a small general increase in loneliness during the school closure during physical isolation measures that were taken to reduce the spread of COVID-19 (Hypothesis 1).
Regarding the division of peer groups based on peer status, we expect to find three groups at T1. Namely, (a) an unpopular-disliked-victimized group characterized by higher levels of rejection and victimization and lower levels of popularity, (b) a normative group characterized by moderate levels of acceptance, rejection, popularity, and victimization and (c) a popular-liked group characterized by higher levels of acceptance and popularity and low levels of rejection and victimization (Engels et al., 2019; van den Berg, Burk, & Cillessen, 2015) (Hypothesis 2). Although being liked is not the same as being popular, we do not expect to find separate liked and popular groups, because liked peers are generally the same peers as popular peers in primary education (van den Berg, Lansu, & Cillessen, 2020).
We expect the normative peer group to have average levels of loneliness compared with other peer groups (Engels et al., 2019). We expect the normative peer group to follow the average loneliness trajectory as posted in H1 (Hypothesis 3).
We expect the unpopular-disliked-victimized peer group to have the highest average levels of loneliness. Adolescents who are rejected and unpopular are, on average, more lonely (Buhs & Ladd, 2001; Engels et al., 2019). These adolescents may have fewer social skills resulting in fewer and less satisfactory friendships and more loneliness (Segrin & Flora, 2000; Spithoven et al., 2017). Moreover, affiliating with unpopular or victimized peers is a social risk which may result in peers avoiding unpopular or victimized adolescents. Avoidance may in turn increase feelings of loneliness (Schmidt & Bagwell, 2011; Woodhouse, Dykas, & Cassidy, 2012).
Our expectations on the trajectories of the unpopular-disliked-victimized group are twofold. On the one hand, following social development theories, this group might have a poorer social development which is reflected by their negative peer status. Lacking social skills makes it harder to cope with social challenges such as the school closure or the transition from primary to secondary education. Early adolescents with fewer social skills may have a smaller and lower quality social network and may be less equipped to maintain this social network and keep on receiving social support over the school closure. Moreover, adolescents with fewer social skills may have more difficulties establishing new friendships in their new peer group in secondary education. Thus, we expect loneliness to increase during the school closure and after the transition (Hypothesis 4a). This means risk factors for loneliness are similar before as well during the COVID-19 pandemic (Bu, Steptoe, & Fancourt, 2020). On the other hand, the unpopular-disliked-victimized group may become less lonely during the school closure (Hypothesis 4b). For these early adolescents, a decrease in peer contact may result in a decrease in negative peer experiences, and therefore result in decreases in loneliness. For instance, less situations might arise wherein early adolescents feel excluded or abandoned by classmates. The school closure might thus give these early adolescents a break from their negative peer experiences such as being bullied. Moreover, whereas this peer group was already more lonely in January, during the school closure more people became lonely, making these early adolescents relatively less lonely than before compared to their peer group (Kaufman et al., 2018).
We expect the popular-liked group to experience the lowest average levels of loneliness compared with the other peer groups (Engels et al., 2019). These early adolescents feel like they belong to their peer group resulting in less perceived loneliness (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Furthermore, accepted early adolescents more often show prosocial behavior leading to more social interaction and less loneliness (Woodhouse et al., 2012).
Our expectations on the trajectories of the liked-popular group are twofold. On the one hand, following social development theories, this group has better social skills which are reflected by their positive peer status. These skills help to overcome social challenges such as the school closure or the transition to secondary education. Moreover, these early adolescents have a larger peer network which they may manage to maintain over the school closure. Therefore, for these early adolescents it might be easier to substitute offline social contact by online social contact, combatting loneliness. Early adolescents in the liked-popular group may also be motivated to compensate offline by online contact to maintain their high status in their peer group. Thus, feelings of loneliness may not increase for the liked-popular peer group (Hypothesis 5a). On the other hand, this peer group is rewarded for going to school in terms of affection and status. These early adolescents have more to lose socially when it comes to a school closure. Therefore, these early adolescents might be socially harmed by school closure and loneliness may increase. This means having a stronger social network before the COVID-19 pandemic may be a risk for social disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic (Lee, Cadigan, & Rhew, 2020) (Hypothesis 5b).
Additionally, we will explore if the amount and type of contact with friends during the school closure is associated with different trajectories of loneliness. To combat loneliness, early adolescents were advised to stay socially connected online during isolation (NJI, 2020). In line with this recommendation, maintaining online social contact during COVID-19 isolation was found to protect from mental health issues such as alienation (Pancani et al., 2020). However, a study on online social contact during COVID-19 isolation showed mixed results for adolescent adjustment. Spending time online texting and video chatting with friends was related to lower levels of loneliness but higher levels of depression (Ellis et al., 2020). Moreover, COVID-19 stress related to more loneliness and depression, especially for adolescents who spend more time on social media. This might be explained by risk factors of social media use, such as upward social comparison and being confronted with pandemic-related news (Ellis et al., 2020). Considering the scarcity in studies on the effect of (online) social contact on loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, we explore (1) different contact profiles of amount and type of social contact during the school closure and (2) if these contact profiles are associated with different loneliness trajectories.
B. METHODS
Description of variables
Independent variables
Peer acceptance, peer rejection and popularity were assessed using classroom-based peer nominations. Early adolescents nominated an unlimited number of classmates they liked, disliked, and found popular. Received nominations will be divided by the total number of classmates (minus 1) to account for differences in class size. Scores for peer acceptance, peer rejection and popularity thus will be proportions ranging from 0 to 1 with higher scores indicating more nominations.
Victimization was measured by asking ‘Can you indicate how often you have been bullied at school in the past months?’. The question was answered on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (several times a week). Before asking this question, early adolescents saw an introduction clip providing the definition of bullying according to Olweus, 1996 (cf. Kaufman, Kretschmer, Huitsing, & Veenstra, 2018).
Dependent variables
Loneliness was measured using the subscale of peer-related loneliness of the Loneliness and Aloneness Scale for Children and Adolescents (LACA; Marcoen, Goossens, & Caes, 1987). The scale consisted of 5 items, a sample item being ‘I feel left out by my friends’. Early adolescents rated the items as 1 = never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often and 4 = always. The scale was assessed at both waves with the second wave consisting of a retrospective scale about the school closure at T2. The items of the retrospective scale were slightly adapted to suit the circumstances of the school closure. The item ‘I feel alone at school’ was changed to ‘I felt alone’. The other items were rephrased to past tense. The retrospective items followed after the introduction: ‘The following questions are about the school closure due to the corona virus. Think back to the time you could not go to school because of the corona virus.’
Frequency and type of contact with friends during the school closure will be used for exploratory analysis. Early adolescents indicated how often they have seen friends face to face during the school closure, how often they (video)called with friends during the school closure and how often they chatted online with friends during the school closure. Answer categories consisted of 1 = daily, 2 = once or several times a week, 3 = once or several times a month, 4 = less than once a month, 5 = never.
Covariates
Gender will be included in the model as a to control the relation with peer status (Engels et al., 2019) (0 = boy; 1 = girl). The percentage of boys and girls will be described for each peer group. Considering there is no relation between gender and loneliness, gender will not be included in the trajectories (Maes et al., 2019).
SES socioeconomic status will be included in the model as a control variable. The average SES will be described for each peer group. Furthermore, SES will be included in the loneliness trajectories. Socioeconomic status is measured combining mothers’ and fathers’ educational level and occupational level and household income. However, the PRIMS-data only includes parental occupation. The complete PRIMS-data can be combined with data of the NCO (Nationaal Cohortonderzoek Onderwijs) from October 2021 onwards. The NCO-data includes parental level of education and household income. Therefore, we will only use parental occupation as a proxy for SES in our analysis until October 2021. Parental occupation is measured by coding open answers to the questions about parents’ job into ISEI scores (ISEI, Ganzeboom & Treiman, 1996). We asked early adolescents ‘Which job does your father/mother have at the moment? ‘and ‘Describe the job of your father/mother as precisely as possible’. Using a PRIMS subsample the correlation between parental occupation as measured in PRIMS and parental level of education in NCO is 0,45 for mothers and 0,52 for fathers.
Sample
The data for this study were already collected. Data stem from the first cohort of the PRIMS project (an acronym for transitioning from PRIMary to Secondary education). PRIMS was designed to investigate peer relations in the transition from primary to secondary education. We will use two waves of the first cohort of PRIMS. The first wave was collected in January-February 2020. The second wave was conducted in October-November 2020 and included current measures as well as retrospective measure on the school closure between March-June 2020.
For the PRIMS-project, schools were selected based on a stratified sample design with the sample frame consisting of the full population of primary schools in The Netherlands. We excluded special needs schools and schools that recently closed. In total, 339 schools were sampled and approached for participation in the study. Sixty-six schools (19,5%) with 105 classes participated in wave 1, resulting in a representative sample at the school level. Within the participating schools, all students from grade 6 (11-12 years old) were invited to participate. Conducting active parental consent resulted in 1,545 of all 2,489 (62,1%) early adolescents with permission to take part in the survey. A total of 1,474 early adolescents filled out the first survey with the remaining students not conducting the survey because they were not present at school or experienced technical issues with the online survey. Early adolescents filled out the online questionnaire during regular school hours under the supervision of their teacher. The survey took approximately 45 minutes.
The second wave of PRIMS was conducted in October-November 2020, after the early adolescents transitioned from primary to secondary education. All 905 students who participated in the first wave and who previously provided a valid home address and/or email address were invited to participate in the second wave. As an incentive, participants could join a lottery to win one of five Nintendo Switches. In total, 596 early adolescents (65,9%) filled out the second survey. Early adolescents filled out the online questionnaire at home, which took approximately 15 minutes.
C. ANALYSIS PLAN
Confirmatory analyses
First, we will calculate descriptive statistics and correlations for all study variables. Second, the hypotheses will be tested using the analyses described below. Third, exploratory analysis will be performed to test if the amount and type of contact with friends during the school closure is associated with different trajectories of loneliness.
Analysis H1: To test the first hypothesis a latent growth curve model will be conducted. This way, we test if there is a significant change in the mean slope over time.
Analysis H2: To test the second hypothesis latent class analysis will be conducted to classify early adolescents into different peer status groups. The classes are made using the variables acceptance, rejection, popularity, and victimization as described under B2. ANOVA’s will be conducted to examine if the peer status groups significantly differ from each other in terms of trajectories of loneliness.
Analysis H3-H5: Hypothesis 3, 4 and 5 will be tested using multigroup latent growth curve analysis. The independent variables are the peer groups based on H2. The dependent variable is the trajectory of loneliness measured on three time points as described under B2. The intercept and slope will be controlled for gender using ANOVA’s.
Exploratory analysis: We perform the exploratory analyses in two steps. First, we explore different contact profiles of amount and type of social contact during the school closure using latent class analysis. The classes are made using the three variables on frequency and type of contact with friends during the school closure. Second, we will explore if different contact profiles are associated with different loneliness trajectories using multigroup latent growth curve analysis. The dependent variable is the trajectory of loneliness measured on three time points as described under B2. The intercept and slope will be controlled for gender using ANOVA’s.
Alternative plan
Hypothesis 3-5 can only be tested if we find peer groups that were predicted in hypothesis 2. If we do not find these peer groups we perform this alternative plan consisting of two options.
Option 1: We may find slightly different groups than the three groups we hypothesized. We foresee two likely alternatives. First, it could be that although liked peers are generally not separated from popular peers in primary education, we nevertheless find two distinct groups, namely a ‘popular-liked’ and a ‘unpopular-liked’ group. This would result in four rather than three groups. In this case, we a
Modeling social interaction dynamics measured with smartphone sensors: An ambulatory assessment study on social interactions and loneliness
No full textMore and more data are being collected using combined active (e.g., surveys) and passive (e.g., smartphone sensors) ambulatory assessment methods. Fine-grained temporal data, such as smartphone-sensors data, allow gaining new insights into the dynamics of social interactions in day-to-day life and how these are associated with psychosocial phenomena – such as loneliness. So far, however, smartphone sensor data have often been aggregated over time, thus, not doing justice to the fine-grained temporality of these data. In this article, we demonstrate how time-stamped sensor data of social interactions can be modeled with multistate survival models. We examine how loneliness is associated with (a) the time between social interaction (i.e., interaction rate) and (b) duration of social interactions in a student population (N_participants = 45, N_observations = 74,645). Before a 10-week ambulatory assessment phase, participants completed the UCLA loneliness scale, covering subscales on intimate, relational, and collective loneliness. Results from the multistate survival models indicated that loneliness subscales were not significantly associated with differences in social interaction rate and duration– only relational loneliness predicted shorter social interaction encounters. These findings illustrate how the combination of new measurement and modeling methods can advance knowledge on social interaction dynamics in daily life settings and how they relate to psychosocial phenomena such as loneliness
Modeling social interaction dynamics measured with smartphone sensors: An ambulatory assessment study on social interactions and loneliness
No full textMore and more data are being collected using combined active (e.g., surveys) and passive (e.g., smartphone sensors) ambulatory assessment methods. Fine-grained temporal data, such as smartphone-sensors data, allow gaining new insights into the dynamics of social interactions in day-to-day life and how these are associated with psychosocial phenomena – such as loneliness. So far, however, smartphone sensor data have often been aggregated over time, thus, not doing justice to the fine-grained temporality of these data. In this article, we demonstrate how time-stamped sensor data of social interactions can be modeled with multistate survival models. We examine how loneliness is associated with (a) the time between social interaction (i.e., interaction rate) and (b) duration of social interactions in a student population (N_participants = 45, N_observations = 74,645). Before a 10-week ambulatory assessment phase, participants completed the UCLA loneliness scale, covering subscales on intimate, relational, and collective loneliness. Results from the multistate survival models indicated that loneliness subscales were not significantly associated with differences in social interaction rate and duration– only relational loneliness predicted shorter social interaction encounters. These findings illustrate how the combination of new measurement and modeling methods can advance knowledge on social interaction dynamics in daily life settings and how they relate to psychosocial phenomena such as loneliness
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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