The high school chains that bind I’m not sure how I missed this when it came out, but two years ago, Peter Bearman (go Columbia!) and colleagues used extremely detailed data gathered as part of the Adolescent Health Project
to map the romantic and sexual network of 832 of the 1,000 students at
a large high school somewhere in the Midwest. The results of their
research is the American Journal of Sociology article “Chains of Affection” (the full PDF of the article available here,
from the home page of one of the other sociologists who was involved in
the study), and it’s a hell of an interesting read. The relationship map
was put together with the dual intents of getting a better sense of the
disease transmission risks faced by high school students and of
figuring out optimal strategies for implementing social policy changes,
and there are a few things that came out of the study that are pretty
amazing to me. . . .
All in all, Bearman and his study group put together a pretty amazing
look at the sexuality of students in an average high school, and
effectively drive home the real risks that parents, educators, and
public health officials need to acknowledge. – Jason [Q Daily News]