In the past decade, policy changes permitted US states to legalize sports betting and new gambling products were developed that allow people to place bets online. It is unclear whether and how these evolving technopolitics will impact people’s experiences with gambling disorder (GD), an addictive condition recognized by the DSM-V. The current project brings new insight to the rapidly changing sporting betting landscape by evaluating how people discuss topics related to GD on two recreational sports betting forums from the social media website Reddit. We scraped an original sample of over 7500 Reddit comments from 194 threads published between 2012 and 2024 that mention key terms related to GD (e.g., “addicted,” “problem,” “hotline”). For each thread of interest, we reconstructed these data into user-based social networks where actors represent Reddit users and directed edges indicate that one user replied to another’s comment. Then, we applied sentiment analyses, exponential random graph models, and meta-analyses to explore whether the network patterns of discussions about GD changed over time. Authors who wrote posts characterized by negative sentiment tended to be more central in the Reddit threads, but this association became weaker over time. Our findings uncover new insight about the ways recreational sports betting forums both normalize risky gambling behaviors and create safety nets that encourage responsible practices.

Organizational research has traditionally emphasized goal-directed workplace communication, yet the blurring of professional and personal boundaries has led employees to engage more in informal, socially-oriented, nonwork-related communication with colleagues (Holmes, 2003; Koch & Denner, 2022). Drawing from literature on cross-domain multiplex relationships—“multifaceted relationships that occupy a blended work–nonwork role space by superimposing work and nonwork interactions, roles, and exchanges” (Methot, Parker, & Hubbard, 2024, p.259)—and “across-the-border” communication (Clark, 2002)—conversations that extend beyond one domain, e.g., sharing family issue with coworkers—we refer to relationships involving blended conversations as cross-domain multiplex communication ties. To understand the effects of engaging in blended communication, we integrate boundary theory and social network perspectives to examine how and why a focal actor’s cross-domain multiplex communication ties influence their personal network structure. We propose employees with larger cross-domain multiplex communication networks will experience high network constraint—the extent to which a focal actor's direct ties are interconnected (Burt, 1992)—which may, then, limit creativity by restricting access to unique information and perspectives due to “over-embeddedness” (Krackhardt, 1999). However, it may also increase others’ awareness of the focal actor’s nonwork activities (Clark, 2002), creating opportunities for coworker support. We will collect ego network data to test our full mediated model by path analysis. This research advances the work-nonwork interface and organizational communication literature by employing a social network lens to examine how ties involving blended conversations influence individuals’ productivity and well-being through their structural network positions.

Wellbeing research is a multifaceted and evolving field that encompasses a wide range of disciplines such as health sciences, social sciences, and economics. In general, there has been quite limited strand of literature providing an insight into understanding of evolution of wellbeing studies of a systemic nature. It is still argued that many attempts to conceptualize wellbeing studies focus not on the definition itself, but primarily at expressing its nature through wellbeing dimensions (research topics and themes).

For the current study, the data are collected from OpenAlex database using the query “wellbeing” OR “well-being” in titles and abstracts to include publications with different form of the word into the dataset (all types of publications are considered). The dataset contains over 619,000 items for 1750-2025.

For older literature items, the historical intervals were selected with the motivation to follow the time slices presented in the theoretical studies. To cope with the challenge of growing number of publications, we adopt an approach by Kullenberg & Nelhans (2015) to divide the material in 15-year intervals for the period 1946-1989 and starting with 1990 to employ 5-year intervals to detect wellbeing studies developments. VOSviewer software as well as R libraries are used to build and analyze keywords co-occurrence, co-authorship, citation, and bibliographic coupling networks for 12 historical intervals to detect thematic evolution, the most influential authors and documents.

The relationship between social participation and subjective well-being (SWB) has gained attention in recent years. Social participation is believed to improve SWB through expanding social networks and improving self-efficacy. Furthermore, personality traits have been suggested to influence social participation and SWB, but few studies have considered personality traits. We aim to clarify the mechanisms linking social participation and SWB while accounting for personality traits. Using questionnaire data from an internet survey conducted in Japan (N=11,002), we performed clustering based on personality traits and analyzed the mechanisms by which social participation contributes to SWB. We applied probabilistic latent semantic analysis to cluster participants based on the Japanese version of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI). We conducted mediation analysis for each cluster to examine how social participation (independent variable) influenced SWB (dependent variable) through social networks and self-efficacy (mediators). As a result, four personality clusters were identified. In all clusters, social participation had a significant positive total effect on SWB. Additionally, the expansion of social networks and improvement in self-efficacy significantly mediated this relationship. Focusing on the types of social participation, in the "high neuroticism" cluster, participation in "community activities" had a significant positive indirect effect on SWB, but the direct effect was negative. Even when considering personality traits, social participation was linked to SWB, but the mechanisms differed. This study contributes to the literature on social participation and SWB by exploring how social participation affects SWB while considering personality traits.

This study explores the determinants of loneliness and perceived social isolation, focusing on the roles of personal networks and social context characteristics. Perceived social isolation is an individual’s subjective feeling of disconnection, regardless of actual social interactions. Loneliness arises from a perceived gap between desired and actual social relationships, encompassing both the quantity and quality of connections. We examine the associations between these feelings and specific characteristics of personal networks, including their structure and composition of social roles, support exchange, temporal dynamics, and modes of communication.

First, we focus on personal network characteristics as potential determinants of perceived isolation and loneliness: network size; emotional closeness; geographic distance; network cohesion; diversity of roles and interaction foci; sociodemographic diversity; and network turnout. Second, we investigate the role of online interactions, exploring whether virtual communication mitigates or exacerbates these feelings. While online platforms expand the reach of social networks, their effects on perceived connection and satisfaction with relationships remain mixed. We hypothesize that reliance on online communication weakens social bonds typically fostered through face-to-face interactions, potentially leading to a greater sense of isolation and loneliness. Finally, we consider whether the effects of personal network characteristics on perceived isolation and loneliness vary by gender, race/ethnicity, and migration status.

Using three waves of egocentric network data from the UC Berkeley Social Network Study (UCNets), which provides detailed longitudinal measurements of personal networks and individual-level observations, this study makes both theoretical and empirical contributions. First, it refines and advances theories about social and relational determinants of loneliness. Second, it provides new insights into how modern modes of social interaction, particularly online communication, influence negative feelings associated with social interactions. Ultimately, this study enhances understanding of the complex interplay between social context, individual characteristics, and modes of interaction in shaping experiences of loneliness and social isolation.

Since its emergence in the 1920s, multi-level marketing (MLM) has been based on a dual principle: the direct selling of products and services and the recruitment of new members through co-optation. Marketed as a vehicle for empowerment and flexibility, this business model is now presented as a response to the search for meaning at work, particularly in the digital era. However, very few participants manage to generate substantial earnings. How can the sustained engagement of individuals in MLM networks be explained, given the frequent absence of financial remuneration, while they continue to perceive these networks as a source of personal and professional fulfilment? Drawing on an undercover participant observation conducted in two MLM networks between 2021 and 2024, this study explores how these structures function as spaces for social resources – material, affective, and cognitive – that shape members’ subjective well-being. In the first network, predominantly female and focused on the sale of cosmetics, MLM is perceived as "an activity of one’s own" providing an escape from family and wage labor constraints, while enabling individual self-expression through work. In the second network, specializing in financial investment and primarily composed of young men from underprivileged Parisian suburbs, the pursuit of well-being is grounded in adherence to a virilist entrepreneurial model that promotes discipline and self-transcendence. By combining an analysis of social resources and relational dynamics, this contribution examines how these networks influence perceptions of well-being and individual success.

This work develops a theoretical and methodological framework for analyzing spatially embedded social networks to better understand how collective efficacy emerges through everyday spatial interactions grounded in local needs. Traditional economic and social exchange models emphasize market-based paradigms of individual rationality and competition, often overlooking the geographic and network structures that facilitate local cooperation, resource access, and subjective well-being. This research examines how spatial mobility and social network structures interact to shape localized perceptions of need satisfaction and collective efficacy in urban neighborhoods.

The study integrates spatial and social network analysis through a novel interactive map-based survey tool that models three interconnected spatial network structures:

1)Street-based mobility networks, representing spatial constraints on movement and access.

2)Resident–point-of-interest affiliation networks, capturing geographic resource access.

3)Community efficacy social networks, revealing social ties weighted by subject collective valuations.

This approach models how geographic space and social resources reciprocally structure each other and activate social capital. By linking spatial constraints, network topology, and subjective experiences, this research contributes new geospatial methods for modeling embedded urban social networks, offering insights into how spatial affordances and social inequalities shape access to collective resources and regenerative capacities.

This work advances spatial network analysis, urban sociology, and participatory design research by proposing an integrated framework for visualizing and measuring social networks in geographic space. By highlighting the role of spatially embedded social ties in fostering collective efficacy in heterogeneous resource environments, it offers new methodological and conceptual tools for strengthening community resilience and well-being through place-based network structures.

In the study of inequality, a common finding is that people do rather poorly at assessing the scale of inequality in their societies. Relatedly, the study of subjective social status emphasises how people’s perception of their own relative position may differ from, and may be more salient than, their “objective” position. Here, we explore how people may be formulating their conception of their own social worlds and their position within it, by drawing on rich geospatial, demographic, economic, and social network data from two communities in South Asia (one in India and one in Nepal). Adult residents in these communities were asked not only a series of name generators for multiple types of social support, but also the “MacArthur Ladder”, placing themselves on one of ten rungs relative to others in their community. We first describe how residents’ reported subjective social status is associated with various attributes (e.g., education, gender, caste, wealth). We then use our geospatial and network data to construct different plausible social worlds that each respondent may be envisioning when considering their relative status: what if they considered only their neighbours? Their immediate social connections? Their friends-of-friends? We further consider if certain relationship types are particularly consequential in aligning people’s perceptions to their “true” status and the inequality of their community, and whether network positions facilitate “accuracy” in perceptions. With these insights, we contribute to the growing body of work aimed at understanding people’s perceptions of and preferences regarding inequality.

Parents of school age children struggled during COVID-19 pandemic school closures. The stress, uncertainty, and role conflict they experienced placed strain on their own wellbeing. Parents reported an increase in stress, loneliness, depression, anxiety, fear, and guilt due to pandemic pressures. One way parents mitigate these effects during a disaster is by activating social capital through networks, however, pandemic-induced quarantine orders created barriers to in-person forms of social support.

Faced with these barriers, how was the wellbeing of parents impacted by the strains of the pandemic? Were parents able to access social networks, and if so, in what ways? How did networks mitigate wellbeing outcomes? This mixed methods study explores these questions using in-depth interviews and social network analysis to understand the resource networks of parents of school-aged children during the pandemic (n=29).

Parents identified members of their support networks and the forms of support that flowed through these networks. To measure the strength of each ego network, a strength indicator was developed using eight network characteristics. Strength scores were analyzed against mental health strain (a composite of stress, wellbeing, and worry scales) to examine how network strength may act as a buffer to strain during the pandemic.

Social network analysis uncovered how parents utilized their traditional social networks and formed new support networks to foster resilience. Parents experiencing greater levels of strain had weaker social networks (i.e. smaller, less diverse, fragmented) than their peers. Results illuminate the ways networks can protect parents’ subjective wellbeing.

Despite the prevalence of a high-choice media environment, individuals with lower income, education, and political interests consume less news than those with higher levels. Individuals with lower news consumption are limited in political participation due to insufficient access to information, and it has been considered an important issue regarding equal opportunities for political participation. While prior studies have focused on groups with low news consumption, this study contributes to discussion by exploring the impact of personality traits (e.g., openness, extraversion) and well-being (e.g., lifestyle, mental health, life satisfaction, daily patterns) on gaps in news consumption.

This study forms news consumption gap networks for each year (2021 - 2023) and develops a stochastic actor-oriented model, using the Korea Media Panel Survey. The networks are formed as an undirected binary network based on differences in respondents’ news exposure scores, which are measured by aggregating responses on the primary use of news through platforms such as OTT services, SNS, and TV.

Based on this approach, the study expects that matches in personality and differences in well-being characteristics will widen the gap in news consumption over time. It suggests that negativity in the news leads to less news consumption among individuals with certain personality traits, and it discusses the journalistic news values of negativity. It also proposes that well-being characteristics significantly influence the stratification of news consumption, providing complementary insights not fully explained by income, education, and political interest. Ultimately, this study discusses the implications of well-being for political inequality and the information gaps.