“Social Network Dynamics of Tobacco Smoking and Alcohol Use among Persons Involved with the Criminal Legal System”
COBRE for Addiction amd Disease Risk Exacerbation
This talk will describe an ongoing modeling effort aimed at understanding the impact of incarceration on smoking and alcohol use disorder within the social networks of persons involved with the correctional system (PCLS) in Rhode Island. PCLS are known to smoke tobacco and use alcohol at higher rates than the general population, and interventions to address either behavior during incarceration have shown limited efficacy. There is also evidence suggesting that the stress associated with incarceration may be shared among close friends or confidants of PCLS. Social processes, such as social influence, homophily, and contagion, may contribute to the clustering of tobacco smoking and alcohol use within PCLS networks. Additionally, social support offered through these networks can help facilitate biobehavioral health interventions. As such, the social networks of PCLS represent a crucial avenue for addressing the growing syndemic of incarceration, tobacco smoking, and alcohol use. However, empirical data on the magnitude of both behaviors within PCLS networks is limited, and further research is needed to explore how these networks can help channel prevention interventions. This study employs modeling to assess the synergistic effects of incarceration-associated tobacco smoking and alcohol use among PCLS and the social network dynamics related to both behaviors. The simulated data generated from this study will serve to motivate future empirical and policy work in this area
This study is supported by P20 GM 130 414 (PI Monti)