Gossip, sabotage, and friendship network dataset.

This article describes the data reported in the paper "Being in the know: Social network analysis of gossip and friendship on college campuses" (Yucel et al. 2021). Data were collected from a Men's and Women's collegiate crew team members from a small liberal arts college. Participants (N = 44) reported information about how often they gossip about members of the team (positively, negatively), who they have had hooked-up with on the team, who they consider to be friends with on the team, whether they have to sabotaged or been sabotaged by any teammates, their well-being and feelings of loneliness. This data brief provides detailed information about data preparation and participants responses to all survey items.

Being in the Know : Social Network Analysis of Gossip and Friendship on a College Campus.

Gossip (evaluative talk about others) is ubiquitous. Gossip allows important rules to be clarified and reinforced, and it allows individuals to keep track of their social networks while strengthening their bonds to the group. The purpose of this study is to decipher the nature of gossip and how it relates to friendship connections. To measure how gossip relates to friendship, participants from men's and women's collegiate competitive rowing (crew) teams (N = 44) noted their friendship connections and their tendencies to gossip about each of their teammates. Using social network analysis, we found that the crew members' friend group connectedness significantly correlated with their positive and negative gossip network involvement. Higher connectedness among friends was associated with less involvement in spreading negative gossip and/or being a target of negative gossip. More central connectedness to the friend group was associated with more involvement in spreading positive gossip and/or being a target of positive gossip. These results suggest that the spread of both positive and negative gossip may influence and be influenced by friendship connections in a social network.

Effects of traumatic brain injury on locomotor adaptation.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Locomotor adaptation is a form of short-term learning that enables gait modifications and reduces movement errors when the environment changes. This adaptation is critical for community ambulation for example, when walking on different surfaces. While many individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) recover basic ambulation, less is known about recovery of more complex locomotor skills, like adaptation. The purpose of this study was to investigate how TBI affects locomotor adaptation. METHODS: Fourteen adults with TBI and 11 nondisabled comparison participants walked for 15 minutes on a split-belt treadmill with 1 belt moving at 0.7 m/s, and the other at 1.4 m/s. Subsequently, aftereffects were assessed and de-adapted during 15 minutes of tied-belt walking (both belts at 0.7 m/s). RESULTS: Participants with TBI showed greater asymmetry in interlimb coordination on split-belts than the comparison group. Those with TBI did not adapt back to baseline symmetry, and some individuals did not store significant aftereffects. Greater asymmetry on split-belts and smaller aftereffects were associated with greater ataxia. DISCUSSION: Participants with TBI were more perturbed by walking on split-belts and showed some impairment in adaptation. This suggests a reduced ability to learn a new form of coordination to compensate for environmental changes. Multiple interacting factors, including cerebellar damage and impairments in higher-level cognitive processes, may influence adaptation post-TBI. CONCLUSIONS: Gait adaptation to novel environment demands is impaired in persons with chronic TBI and may be an important skill to target in rehabilitation. VIDEO ABSTRACT AVAILABLE: (See Video, Supplemental Digital Content 1, http://links.lww.com/JNPT/A74) for more insights from the authors.