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Wang H, Xu J, Fu S, Tsang UK, Ren H, Zhang S, Hu Y, Zeman JL, Han ZR. Friend Emotional Support and Dynamics of Adolescent Socioemotional Problems. J Youth Adolesc 2024:10.1007/s10964-024-02025-3. [PMID: 38842748 DOI: 10.1007/s10964-024-02025-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2024] [Accepted: 05/21/2024] [Indexed: 06/07/2024]
Abstract
Emotional support from friends is a crucial source of social support for adolescents, significantly influencing their psychological development. However, previous research has primarily focused on how this support correlates with general levels of socioemotional problems among adolescents, neglecting the significance of daily fluctuations in these problems. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between friend emotional support and both the average and dynamic indicators of daily emotional and peer problems in adolescents. These dynamic indicators include within-domain dynamics-such as inertia, which reflects the temporal dependence of experiences, and volatility, which indicates within-person variance-and cross-domain dynamics, such as transactional effects, which measure the strength of concurrent or lagged associations between daily emotional and peer problems. Participants were 315 seventh-grade Chinese adolescents (Mage = 13.05 years, SD = 0.77 years; 48.3% girls). Adolescents reported on their friends' emotional support at baseline and then completed measures of daily emotion and peer problems over a 10-day period. Using dynamic structural equation models, the results revealed that higher levels of friend emotional support were associated with fewer daily socioemotional problems. This was evident both in terms of average levels and dynamic aspects, characterized by lower mean levels of daily emotional and peer problems, reduced inertia and volatility of these problems, and a weaker spillover effect from daily emotional issues to peer problems. These findings highlight the significant role of friend-emotional support in mitigating adolescents' daily socioemotional challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui Wang
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai, Zhuhai, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, National Virtual Simulation Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Jianjie Xu
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, National Virtual Simulation Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Sinan Fu
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, National Virtual Simulation Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Ue Ki Tsang
- Department of Counseling & Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Haining Ren
- T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Shurou Zhang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, National Virtual Simulation Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Yueqin Hu
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, National Virtual Simulation Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
| | - Janice L Zeman
- Department of Psychological Sciences, William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA
| | - Zhuo Rachel Han
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, National Virtual Simulation Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
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Costello MA, Pettit C, Hellwig AF, Hunt GL, Bailey NA, Allen JP. Adolescent social learning within supportive friendships: Self-disclosure and relationship quality from adolescence to adulthood. JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE : THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE 2024. [PMID: 38650089 DOI: 10.1111/jora.12947] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2023] [Revised: 03/29/2024] [Accepted: 04/05/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024]
Abstract
This study examines links between self-disclosure and relationship quality with close friends from adolescence to adulthood. A diverse community sample of adolescents (N = 184) participated in survey and observational measures annually from ages 13 through 29, along with their close friends and romantic partners. Random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RICLPM) was used to parse markers of within-individual change from age 13 to 18. Long-term longitudinal path models also investigated cascading associations among self-disclosure and relationship quality, on aggregate, from adolescence to adulthood. Adolescents who reported a higher-quality friendship in a given year demonstrated greater-than-expected increases in self-disclosure the following year, and an adolescent demonstrated high self-disclosure one year reported greater-than-expected increases in friendship quality the following year. Higher mean self-disclosure in adolescence predicted higher mean self-disclosure in adulthood. Results are interpreted as identifying high-quality adolescent friendships as key contexts for developing intimacy-building capacities (i.e. self-disclosure), which sets the stage for satisfying close relationships in adulthood.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Corey Pettit
- University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
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Allen JP, Costello MA, Hellwig AF, Stern JA. Pathways from adolescent close friendship struggles to adult negative affectivity. Dev Psychopathol 2024:1-10. [PMID: 38174423 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579423001542] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
This 19-year prospective study applied a social development lens to the challenge of identifying long-term predictors of adult negative affectivity. A diverse community sample of 169 individuals was repeatedly assessed from age 13 to age 32 using self-, parent-, and peer-reports. As hypothesized, lack of competence establishing and maintaining close friendships in adolescence had a substantial long-term predictive relation to negative affectivity at ages 27-32, even after accounting for prior depressive, anxious, and externalizing symptoms. Predictions also remained robust after accounting for concurrent levels of depressive symptoms, indicating that findings were not simply an artifact of previously established links between relationship quality and depressive symptoms. Predictions also emerged from poor peer relationships within young adulthood to future relative increases in negative affectivity by ages 27-32. Implications for early identification of risk as well as for potential preventive interventions are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph P Allen
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Meghan A Costello
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Amanda F Hellwig
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Jessica A Stern
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
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Buitron V, Jiménez-Colón G, Duarté-Vélez Y. Mental health services use and social support among Latinx families with adolescents who engage in suicidal behavior. EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE IN CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH 2023; 8:194-205. [PMID: 37383484 PMCID: PMC10299760 DOI: 10.1080/23794925.2023.2183433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/30/2023]
Abstract
Latinx communities experience a significant child mental health disparity. Research is needed to examine mental health services use and social support in Latinx adolescents, with particular attention to acculturative factors and youth who have high levels of clinical severity. The current study examined whether acculturation and enculturation, and related proxies, are associated with prior history of services use and social support in Latinx families with adolescents who had a recent suicidal crisis. Participants were 110 youths, recently admitted to psychiatric hospitalization, ages 12 to 17 years and their caregivers. Results indicated that approximately 20% of the overall sample did not access any formal mental health services (e.g., outpatient mental health care, primary care support, school staff support) before high acuity hospital care. First generation status and higher caregiver enculturation were associated with a lower likelihood of formal mental health services use, even when controlling for clinical covariates. Adolescent preference for Spanish was associated with lower social support. Findings suggest that families with higher enculturation and first-generation immigrant families (both caregivers and youth born outside of the U.S.), in the context of severe clinical impairment, experience systemic and sociocultural barriers conducive to limited engagement with mental health support. Implications for improving the accessibility of mental health supports are reviewed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Gisela Jiménez-Colón
- Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital and Brown University, Coro West Suite 1.300, Box #36, 25 Hoppin St., Providence, RI 02903
| | - Yovanska Duarté-Vélez
- Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital and Brown University, Coro West Suite 1.300, Box #36, 25 Hoppin St., Providence, RI 02903
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