Mark C. Pachucki

University of Massachusetts Amherst | UMass Amherst · Department of Sociology

With the onset of puberty, youth begin to choose their social environments and develop health-promoting habits, making it a vital period to study social and biological factors contextually. An important question is how pubertal development and behaviors such as physical activity and sleep may be differentially linked with youths’ friendships. Cross...

Given increased political polarization and racial tension in the wake of the 2016 presidential election in the United States, this study examines dropped ties in personal networks at that time based on political and racial identities. We employed data from the 2015–2018 UCNets study (n =1159), a longitudinal, representative data set of the San Fran...

Unhealthy food choice is an important driver of obesity, but research examining the relationship of food choices and social influence has been limited. We sought to assess associations in the healthfulness of workplace food choices among a large population of diverse employees whose food-related social connections were identified using passively co...

This study examines how individual characteristics and network features of coalition participation in an intervention predict coalition members’ diffusion of Knowledge and Engagement in childhood obesity prevention. The study involved six communities in the U.S. measured across two to five time points from 2018 to 2021. Each community participated...

Given a well-known overlapping prevalence of social isolation with loneliness and depression among older adults, this study aimed to contextually investigate the relationship of these constructs with weight loss of more than 5kg in a year, with a special focus on the intersection of living alone and marital dissolution as key dimensions of isolatio...

Objectives: To evaluate the effects of social network characteristics of individuals with a family history of cancer on the use of cancer-related services (e.g., screening, genetic counseling/testing). Sample & setting: 170 family members of individuals with the most common hereditary or familial cancers. Methods & variables: Data collection o...

Collective impact is an organizational model that is often used as a tool for solving complex social problems through cross-sector collaboration. Traditional applications of this model require a separate backbone organization to oversee the organizational partnership. Using qualitative data from a larger mixed methods study, we examined STEMSUCCESS...

Background Cross-sector collaborations and coalitions are promising approaches for childhood obesity prevention, yet there is little empirical evidence about how they affect change. We hypothesized that changes in knowledge of, and engagement with, childhood obesity prevention among coalition members can diffuse through social networks to influence...

Background While most coalition research focuses on studying the effects of peer relationship structure, this study examines the coevolution of coalition structure and behavior across three communities in the U.S. with the goal of identifying coalition dynamics that impact a childhood obesity prevention intervention. Methods Over two years (2018–...

Background While most coalition research focuses on studying the effects of peer relationship structure, this study examines the coevolution of coalition structure and behavior across three communities in the U.S. with the goal of identifying coalition dynamics that impact a childhood obesity prevention intervention. Methods Over two years (2018–2...

Community coalitions can address local issues with deep, historic, and contextual understanding that enables customized implementation of evidence-based strategies. The individuals within the coalition, their partnerships, and the social context is likely an important component of unraveling the challenges of implementation so interventions reach p...

Background: Community coalitions often lead and coordinate "whole-of-community" childhood obesity prevention interventions. A growing body of work suggests that coalition network ties, which facilitate transmission of information and advocacy, may be a key part of how such leadership operates. This study provides an understanding of the structure o...

Older men who live alone are typically believed to be highly susceptible to malnutrition. However, recent studies report their living alone status is associated with frailty negatively and with Type 2 diabetes positively. Meanwhile, older women who live alone are believed to be less susceptible to malnutrition, but qualitative research point out th...

While network research often focuses on social integration as a predictor of health, a less-explored idea is that connections to dissimilar others may benefit well-being. As such, this study investigates whether network diversity is associated with changes in four health outcomes over a 3-year period of time in the U.S.A. Specifically, we focus on...

While network research often focuses on social integration as a predictor of health, a less-explored idea is that connections to dissimilar others may benefit well-being. As such, this study investigates whether network diversity is associated with changes in four health outcomes over a 3-year period of time in the United States. Specifically, we f...

With the national increase in opioid use disorder among pregnant and parenting women, innovative mechanisms are being utilized to engage with mothers to build social support and promote recovery. This is particularly important in rural settings where other support systems may be limited. Digital storytelling is an interactive tool that often facili...

Puberty is marked by substantial increases and emerging sex differences in psychological disorders and risky behaviors. However, few studies have examined these effects beyond adolescence, and the previous literature has been dominated by samples of White girls. The current study examines the broadest known set of health sequelae related to traditi...

Purpose: Both schools and neighborhoods play important roles in determining adolescent weight status, but little is known about their relative importance, particularly in predicting long-term weight outcomes. We assessed the impacts of both school and neighborhood socioeconomic composition, social connectedness, and built environment during adoles...

Background/aims: Behavioral nudges in the food environment increase healthy choices, but it is unknown if they improve diet and health. The ChooseWell 365 study will determine if an automated, personalized worksite intervention to nudge healthier choices improves overall diet and cardiometabolic health. Design: Randomized controlled trial of 602...

Background: Involving groups of community stakeholders (e.g., steering committees) to lead community-wide health interventions appears to support multiple outcomes ranging from policy and systems change to individual biology. While numerous tools are available to measure stakeholder characteristics, many lack detail on reliability and validity, ar...

Introduction Studies of community-based obesity prevention interventions have hypothesized that stakeholder networks are a critical element of effective implementation. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the interpersonal network structures within a sub-sample of stakeholders from two past successful childhood obesity prevention interve...

Introduction: Research suggests obesity may be transmitted through social networks. A possible pathway is social influence on food choice. We investigated peer influence on the healthfulness of worksite food choices using social network analysis in a large hospital employee population, hypothesizing that socially-connected employees’ food choices w...

Though eating with others is often a social behavior, relationships between social contexts of eating and nutrient intake have been underexplored. This study evaluates how social aspects of eating - frequencies of eating meals with others, meals prepared at home, and meals outside the home - are associated with nutrient intake. Because diet improve...

Previous research has found that impatient time preferences and self-control problems (present bias) are related to increased obesity risk. However, scant evidence exists pertaining to whether parents’ impatience and self-control problems impact the obesity status of their children, too. Accordingly, we explore this study question among a large nat...

The present study examines links between civic engagement (voting, volunteering, and activism) during late adolescence and early adulthood, and socioeconomic status and mental and physical health in adulthood. Using nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a propensity score matching approac...

Objective: We examined the relationship between time preferences and physical activity among adults. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 7071 adults in the United States. Time preferences were elicited based on a hypothetical dollar amount today or a larger sum in 30 days, and a dollar amount 30 days from now or a larger sum in 60 days. Ph...

Objective: To examine the relationship between economic time preferences and frequency of fast food and full-service restaurant consumption among U.S. adults. Methods: Participants included 5871U.S. adults who responded to a survey conducted in 2011 pertaining to the lifestyle behaviors of families and the social context of these behaviors. The...

There is little agreement among governments, institutions, scientists and food activists as to how to best tackle the challenging issues of health and sustainability in the food sector. This essay discusses the potential of school meals as a platform to promote healthy and sustainable food behavior. School meal programs are of particular interest f...

BACKGROUND Obesity and diabetes family history are the two strongest risk factors for type 2 diabetes (T2D). Prior work shows that an individual’s obesity risk is associated with obesity in social contacts, but whether T2D risk follows similar patterns is unknown. OBJECTIVE We aimed to estimate the relationship between obesity or diabetes in an ind...

Design and methods: Measures of social network structure were calculated from self-reported social contact data within three cohorts of residents in one dementia special care unit. Pearson correlations were used to describe associations between overall quality of life and cognition, with network characteristics indicative of social integration. R...

‘Symbolic Boundaries’ are the lines that include and define some people, groups, and things while excluding others. These distinctions can be expressed through normative interdictions (taboos), cultural attitudes and practices, and patterns of likes and dislikes. They play an important role in the creation of inequality and the exercise of power. T...

Scholars of culture have been increasingly concerned with the roles played by interpersonal social networks in relational cultural processes. This article highlights the ways that social network composition and dynamics can shape individuals' cultural consumption choices and the ways that consumption can shape the structure of individuals' social n...

Social networks reflect the structure of our interpersonal relationships. The effect of social networks on health is a topic of growing interest, particularly in an increasingly connected world. This review provides an overview of how social relations shape obesity risk and the effectiveness of network-based obesity interventions across the lifecou...

Background How parent and sibling obesity status comparatively shape a child’s obesity is unknown. Purpose To investigate how the obesity status of different children within the same family is related to a parent or sibling’s obesity. Methods A national sample of adults in 10,244 American households was surveyed during 2011; data were analyzed in...

L’influence de la societe sur les preferences alimentaires a fait l’objet de nombreuses etudes sans toutefois que ces dernieres tiennent compte des roles joues par les rapports sociaux. Bien que les celebres travaux sociologiques de Pierre Bourdieu mettent en evidence le lien entre le capital economique, culturel et social, et les choix alimentaire...

How does art influence the status of the artists that make it? Sociologists argue that the shared use of artistic conventions produces status arrays, but we have not subjected this claim to empirical investigation. Some common metrics of status are popularity with the public and esteem from peers or critics, but these measurements have not been con...

Book details Strong, J (Ed.) Educated Tastes: Food, Drink, and Connoisseur Culture. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press; 2011. 320 pages, ISBN 978-080-321-935-9

How do experts assess the quality of fine art museums? While there is a well-developed body of sociological knowledge on evaluation and classification processes, there has been little work to treat museums as an object of inquiry. Yet guidance from the multidisciplinary museum literature only offers an undersocialized view of these organizations. I...

We investigated whether eating behaviors were concordant among diverse sets of social ties. We analyzed the socioeconomic and demographic distribution of eating among 3418 members of the Framingham Heart Study observed from 1991 to 2001. We used a data-classification procedure to simplify choices into 7 nonoverlapping patterns that we matched with...

Analysis of dietary patterns is prominent in nutrition literatures, yet few studies have taken advantage of multiple repeated measurements to understand the nature of individual-level changes over time in food choice, or the relation between these changes and body mass index (BMI). To investigate changes in eating patterns at the individual level a...

A burgeoning literature spanning sociologies of culture and social network methods has for the past several decades sought to explicate the relationships between culture and connectivity. A number of promising recent moves toward integration are worthy of review, comparison, critique, and synthesis. Network thinking provides powerful techniques for...

Despite foundations in early pragmatism, research on social patterning of creative action has been scarce in the multidisciplinary literature on creativity. We address this by exploring how students perceive their creative contributions to college life. By analyzing narratives, we find that the majority of creativity is associated with everyday exp...

This paper takes stock of the most recent scholarship on symbolic boundaries and how these interact with social boundaries—more durable and institutionalized social differences. Our primary goal is to raise awareness of a growing body of empirical work, and to highlight key mechanisms which they address, among them: the strategic management of coll...