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AbstractSocial networks influence children and adolescents' physical activity. The focus of this paper is to examine the differences in the effects of physical activity on friendship selection, with eye to the implications on physical activity interventions for young children. Prior to implementing a network intervention in the field, it is important to understand potential heterogeneities in the effects that activity level have on network structure. In this study, the associations between activity level and cross-sectional network structure, and activity level and change in network structure are assessed. We studied a real-world friendship network among 81 children (average age 7.96 years) who lived in low SES neighborhoods, attended public schools, and attended one of two structured aftercare programs, of which one has existed and the other was new. We modeled network selection effects and cross-sectional properties, while accounting for potential heterogeneities between networks. There was heterogeneity in the effect of physical activity on both cross-sectional network structure and the formation and dissolution processes, both across time and between networks. This suggests that if peer selection processes are changing within a network, a static network intervention strategy for childhood physical activity could become inefficient as the network evolves.

Free to Grow: Head Start Partnerships to Promote Substance-free Communities (FTG) was a national initiative in which local Head Start (HS) agencies, in partnership with other community organizations, implemented a mix of evidence-based family-strengthening and community-strengthening strategies. The evaluation of FTG used a quasi-experimental design to compare 14 communities that participated in the FTG intervention with 14 matched comparison communities. Telephone surveys were conducted with two cohorts of the primary caregivers of children in HS at baseline and then annually for 2 years. The survey was also administered to repeated cross-sectional samples of primary caregivers of young children who were not enrolled in HS. No consistent evidence was found in changes in family functioning or neighborhood conditions when the 14 FTG sites were compared to 14 matched sites. However, caregivers of young children who were not in HS in three high-implementing FTG sites showed evidence of improvements in neighborhood organization, neighborhood norms against substance abuse, and child disciplinary practices. Results provide highly limited support for the concept that family and neighborhood conditions that are likely to affect child development and well-being can be changed through organized efforts implemented by local HS programs.