Cynthia Lakon

Picture of Cynthia Lakon
Interim Chair
Public Health
Professor, Health, Society, and Behavior
Public Health
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004, Health Behavior Health Education
Phone: (949) 824-0946
Email: clakon@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
651 East Peltason Road
Mail Code: 3957
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Social Networks and Health; Social Support; Social Influence; Adolescent Social Networks; Injection Drug User Networks; Ecological Models of Health; Systems Science
Academic Distinctions
School of Health Science Honoree for Excellence in Undergraduate Education Division of Undergraduate Education, UC Irvine, March 2013

Royster Society of Fellows, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2004- present

Delta Omega National Scholastic Honor Society in Public Health, Inducted June 1995
Appointments
Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Southern California, Department of Preventive Medicine, Institute for Preventative Medicine (2004-2006)
Awards and Honors
School of Health Science Honoree for Excellence in Undergraduate Education
Division of Undergraduate Education, UC Irvine, March 2013
Publications
Lakon, C.M, John R. Hipp, Cheng Wang, Carter T. Butts, and Rupa Jose (2015). Simulating Dynamic Network Models and Adolescent Smoking: The Impact of Varying Peer Influence and Peer Selection. American Journal of Public Health, 105(12),2438-2448. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302789

Invited Video Abstract: see http://ajphtalks.blogspot.com
Published online at AJPH Blogspot, 12/8/15
Selected Publications

Lakon, C.M, Ennett, S.T., & Norton, E.C. (2006). Mechanisms through which Drug, Sex Partner, and Friendship Network Characteristics Relate to Risky Needle Use among High Risk Youth and Young Adults. Social Science & Medicine, 63(9), p. 2489-2499.

Valente, T., Coronges, K., Lakon, C., & Costenbader, E. (2007). How correlated are network centrality measures? Connections, 27(3).

Timberlake, D.S., Huh, J., & Lakon, C.M. (2009). Use of propensity score matching in evaluating smokeless tobacco as a gateway to smoking. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 11(4), 455.

Hipp J.R. & Lakon, C.M. (2010). Social Disparities in Health: disproportionate toxic exposure in minority communities over a decade. Health and Place, 16 (2010), p. 674–683.

Lakon, C.M., Hipp, J.R., & Timberlake, D.S. (2010). The Social Context of Adolescent Smoking: A Systems Perspective. American Journal of Public Health, 100(7): 1218 - 1228.

Lakon, C.M. & Valente, T.W. (2012). Social Integration in Friendship Networks: The Synergy of Network Structure and Peer Influence in Relation to Cigarette Smoking among High Risk Adolescents. Social Science and Medicine, 74(9), 1407-1417.

Lakon, C.M., Wang, C., Butts, C.T., Jose, R., Timberlake, D.S. & Hipp, J.R. (2014). A Dynamic Model of Adolescent Friendship Networks, Parental Influences, and Smoking. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, published online September 20, 2014, DOI 10.1007/s10964-014-0187-7.

Lakon, C.M. & Hipp, J.R. (2014). On Social and Cognitive Influences: Relating Adolescent Networks, Generalized Expectancies, and Adolescent Smoking. PLOS ONE 9(12): e115668. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0115668 .

Hosseini, P.S.K., Munoz, K., Lakon, C.M., Brown, B. (2014). Factors Correlating Perceptions of HPV and Vaccine Uptake among High School Students. Californian Journal of Health Promotion,12, 3, 79-87.

Hipp, J.R., Wang, C., Butts, C. T., Jose, R., & Lakon, C. M (2015). Research Note: The consequences of different methods for handling missing network data in Stochastic Actor Based Models. Social Networks, 41, 56-71.

Wang, C., Hipp, J., Butts, C., Jose, R. & Lakon, C.M (2015). Alcohol Use among Adolescent Youth: The Role of Friendship Networks and Family Factors in Multiple School Studies. Plos One 10(3):e0119965. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0119965

Pechmann, C., Pan, L., Delucchi, K., Lakon, C.M. & Prochaska, J. J. (2015). Development of a Twitter-based Intervention for Smoking Cessation that Encourages High Quality Social Media Interactions through Automessages. Journal of Medical Internet Research,17(2),1-12.

Lakon, C.M, John R. Hipp, Cheng Wang, Carter T. Butts, and Rupa Jose (2015). Simulating Dynamic Network Models and Adolescent Smoking: The Impact of Varying Peer Influence and Peer Selection. American Journal of Public Health, 105(12),2438-2448.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302789

Invited Video Abstract: see http://ajphtalks.blogspot.com
Published online at AJPH Blogspot, 12/8/15

Jose, R., Hipp, J.R., Butts, C.T., Wang, C., & Lakon, C.M. (2016). Network Structure, Influence, Selection and Delinquent Behavior: Unpacking a Dynamic Process. Criminal Justice & Behavior, 2016, 43(2), 264– 284, doi: 10.1177/0093854815605524.

Wang, C., Butts, C.T., Hipp, J.R., Jose, R. & Lakon, C.M.(2016). Multiple Imputation for Missing Edge Data: A Case Study. Social Networks, 45, 89–98.

Wang, C., Butts, C.T., Hipp, J.R., Jose, R. & Lakon, C.M. (2016) Coevolution of Adolescent Friendship Networks and Smoking and Drinking Behaviors with Consideration Parental Influence. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors,30(3), 321-324.

Pechmann, C., Delucchi, K., Lakon, CM, and Prochaska, J.J. (2016). Randomised controlled trial evaluation of Tweet2Quit: a social network quit-smoking intervention. Tobacco Control, 0,1–7. doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2015-05276

Media Coverage: http://time.com/4275325/twitter-can-help-you-quit-smoking-study/?xid=homepage

Lakon, C.M., Pechmann, C., Wang, C., Pan, L., Delucchi, K., & Prochaska, J. J. (2016). Mapping Engagement in Twitter-based Social Support Networks for Smoking Cessation and Relapse Prevention among Adult Smokers. American Journal of Public Health, 106(8): 1374-1380.

Wang, C., Butts, C.T., Hipp, J.R., Jose, R., & Lakon, C.M. (2017).Peer Influence, Peer Selection and Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Forward Simulation of a Dynamic Network Model of Friendship Ties and Alcohol Use. Prevention Science. DOI 10.1007/s11121-017-0773-5.
Grants
Principal Investigator (R21), Cascades of Network Structure & Function: Pathways to Adolescent Substance Use. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), grant #1 R21 DA031152-01A1 funded from 6/1/12 – 6/30/14, $402,820
Professional Societies
Society for Prevention Research
International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA)
Last updated
04/11/2024