Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Using Ego Network Data To Inform Agent-Based Models Of Diffusion, Jeffrey A. Smith, Jessica Burow

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Agent-based modeling holds great potential as an analytical tool. Agent-based models (ABMs) are, however, also vulnerable to critique, as they often employ stylized social worlds, with little connection to the actual environment in question. Given these concerns, there has been a recent call to more fully incorporate empirical data into ABMs. This article falls in this tradition, exploring the benefits of using sampled ego network data in ABMs of cultural diffusion. Thus, instead of relying on full network data, which can be difficult and costly to collect, or no empirical network data, which is convenient but not empirically grounded, we …

Life Expectancies With Depression By Age Of Migration And Gender Among Older Mexican Americans, Catherine García, Marc A. Garcia, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Fernando I. Rivera, Mukaila Raji

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background and Objectives: Prior studies examining depression among older Mexican Americans suggest both women and immigrants are at higher risk of depressive symptomatology than males and U.S.-born Mexican Americans. We use data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to examine whether life expectancy with depression and without depression varies by nativity, age of migration, and gender.

Research Design and Methods: Sullivan-based life tables were used to estimate depression life expectancies among Mexican Americans aged 65 years and older residing in the Southwestern United States. Depression is based on the 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies …

Effects Of A Government-Academic Partnership: Has The Nsf-Census Bureau Research Network Helped Improve The U.S. Statistical System?, Daniel H. Weinberg,, John M. Abowd, Robert F. Belli, Noel Cressie, David C. Folch, S. H. Holan, Margaret C. Levenstein, Kristen Olson, Jerome P. Reiter, Matthew D. Shapiro, Jolene Smyth, Leen-Kiat Soh, Bruce D. Spencer, Seth E. Spielman, Lars Vilhuber, Christopher K. Wikle

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The National Science Foundation-Census Bureau Research Network (NCRN) was established in 2011 to create interdisciplinary research nodes on methodological questions of interest and significance to the broader research community and to the Federal Statistical System (FSS), particularly to the Census Bureau. The activities to date have covered both fundamental and applied statistical research and have focused at least in part on the training of current and future generations of researchers in skills of relevance to surveys and alternative measurement of economic units, households, and persons. This article focuses on some of the key research findings of the eight nodes, organized …

“It Ruined My Life”: The Effects Of The War On Drugs On People Who Inject Drugs (Pwid) In Rural Puerto Rico, Roberto Abadie, C. Gelpi-Acosta, C. Davila, A. Rivera, Melissa Welch-Lazoritz, Kirk Dombrowski

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background—The War on Drugs has raised the incarceration rates of racial minorities for non-violent drug-related crimes, profoundly stigmatized drug users, and redirected resources from drug prevention and treatment to militarizing federal and local law enforcement. Yet, while some states consider shifting their punitive approach to drug use, to one based on drug treatment and rehabilitation, nothing suggests that these policy shifts are being replicated in Puerto Rico.

Methods—This paper utilizes data from 360 PWID residing in four rural towns in the mountainous area of central Puerto Rico. We initially recruited 315 PWID using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and collected data about …