Social Network Characteristics of Perceived Norms Regarding Methamphetamine Use among Homeless Youth

Background: Homeless youth’s social networks have been consistently linked with their substance-use behaviors. Social-networks influence behavior through several mechanisms, especially through the establishment, and maintenance of social-norms. Norms are defined as perceived rules or properties of a group that characterize specific beliefs around what behaviors are considered acceptable or common within that group. While several theories suggest that norms offer a potent channel of initiating and sustaining behavioral change, intervention efforts have been hampered because of the paucity of research examining clustering of norms within specific social-network structures. This study utilized sociometric-analyses to understand whether social norms of drug-use behaviors are clustered within social network-structures.

Methods: Event Based Approach (EBA) was used to delineate the boundary of the two sociometric networks of homeless-youth, recruited from two drop-in centers in Los Angeles (n=160) and Santa Monica (n=130). Measures included 1) perceived substance use by network members (descriptive-norm) and 2) objection to engaging in substance use by network members (injunctive-norm). Sociometric network characteristics included centrality (which measures popularity) and cohesiveness (location within dense sub-networks). The primary behavioral outcome was recent methamphetamine use.

Results: Multivariate logistic-regressions revealed that youth who believed that their peers engaged in methamphetamine-use were 2.5 times more likely to engage in methamphetamine-use. With regards to sociometric network characteristics, perceptions of social-norms were largely shaped by the cohesiveness of the sociometric-network. Specifically, youth who were in more cohesive-networks were 4.5 times more likely to report that their peers used methamphetamine.

Conclusion: These results reveal that social-norms are clustered within networks. Importantly, these results might indicate that peer-based-prevention programs for homeless-youth should not rely on popular opinion leaders. The significance of network-cohesion implies that instead of a leader-centric technique, network interventions should be designed to capitalize on the reciprocity and social influence naturally occurring in the more cohesive parts of networks.