Associations between adolescent friends' responses during problem talk and depressive symptoms.

The present study examined how friends' responses to each other during problem talk predicted depressive symptoms over time. Participants included 271 adolescent friend dyads (69 female and 69 male early adolescent dyads; 72 female and 61 male middle adolescent dyads; 66.4% White and 26.

Co-rumination between friends: Considering the roles of outcome expectations, relationship provisions, and perceptions of problems.

Despite its implications for adjustment, little is known about factors that support co-rumination in friendships. The current multi-method, longitudinal study addressed this question with 554 adolescents (M = 14.50; 52% girls; 62% White; 31% Black; 7% Asian American) from the Midwestern United States in 2007-2010.

Say you'll be there: Associations between observed verbal responses, friendship quality, and perceptions of support in young adult friendships.

Friendships are a primary source of social support during young adulthood; however, little is known about the factors associated with young adults feeling greater support during interactions with friends. We examined how micro-level verbal responses and macro-level judgments of friendship quality were associated with perceptions of support following an interaction between friends. Same-gender friend dyads ( = 132; 66.

Adolescents' Online Connections with Friends during COVID-19: An Assessment of the Forms of Communication and Their Association with Emotional Adjustment.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders limited adolescents' ability to connect with friends in person, leading adolescents to rely on digital forms of communication to interact with friends. The present study ( = 168 adolescents ages 11-20, 51.40% female) examined the types of digital communication adolescents used to connect with friends during the pandemic stay-at-home orders and how each form of digital communication related to adolescents' emotional adjustment.

Co-rumination and conversational self-focus: Adjustment implications of problem talk in adolescents' friendships.

Friendships are central relationships during adolescence. Given the increased experience of stress during adolescence, friends are especially critical sources of support at this time. Although experiencing social support is related to well-being, adolescents' experiences sharing problems with friends is not always positive.

Friends' discussions of interpersonal and noninterpersonal problems during early and middle adolescence: Associations with co-rumination.

Friendships are important sources of support during adolescence. However, a growing literature indicates some adolescents co-ruminate, or talk with friends about problems in a way that is excessive, speculative, and negatively focused, which confers risk for internalizing problems. Still, previous research had not examined the types of problems co-ruminators discuss.

Longitudinal Change in Adolescent Depression and Anxiety Symptoms from before to during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This study aimed to examine changes in depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of 1,339 adolescents (9-18 years old, 59% female) from three countries. We also examined if age, race/ethnicity, disease burden, or strictness of government restrictions moderated change in symptoms. Data from 12 longitudinal studies (10 U.

Boys' and Girls' Interactions With Same-Gender Friends and Other-Gender Friends: A Focus on Problem Disclosures.

The current study examines adolescents' subjective experiences interacting with same-gender and other-gender friends, with a focus on interactions involving disclosure about personal problems. Participants were 510 youth (65% White or European American, 26% Black or African American) in seventh grade (n = 244; M = 13.01 years; 51% girls) and tenth grade (n = 266; M = 16.

Adolescent Adjustment During COVID-19: The Role of Close Relationships and COVID-19-related Stress.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents' typical social support systems have been disrupted. The present study examined adolescent adjustment during the pandemic (summer, 2020) while controlling for pre-pandemic adjustment (2017-2018) in 170 youth (ages 12-20) from Missouri and Florida. We also examined whether positive and negative relationship qualities with four close others (i.

Relations of friendship experiences with depressive symptoms and loneliness in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic review.

Well-established psychological theories indicate that interpersonal relationships and emotional well-being are linked in fundamental ways (Coyne, 1976; Sullivan, 1953). Indeed, difficulties in close relationships can contribute to emotional adjustment problems, and emotional problems can adversely affect close relationships. Moreover, different close relationships are especially significant in terms of development and adjustment at different stages of the life span.

Co-Rumination Exacerbates Stress Generation among Adolescents with Depressive Symptoms.

Through stress generation, individuals' own thoughts and behaviors can actually lead to increases in their experience of stress. Unfortunately, stress generation is especially common among individuals who are already suffering from elevated depressive symptoms. However, despite the acknowledgement that some individuals with depressive symptoms generate greater stress than others, few studies have identified specific factors that could exacerbate stress generation among individuals with depressive symptoms.

Girls' and boys' problem talk: Implications for emotional closeness in friendships.

This research highlights the critical role of gender in the context of problem talk and social support in adolescents' friendships. Early- and middle-adolescents' (N = 314 friend dyads; Ms = 13.01 and 16.

Depressive Symptoms and Conversational Self-Focus in Adolescents' Friendships.

This multi-method, longitudinal study considered the interplay among depressive symptoms, aversive interpersonal behavior, and interpersonal rejection in early and middle adolescents' friendships. In particular, the study examined a newly identified interpersonal process, conversational self-focus (i.e.

An observational study of co-rumination in adolescent friendships.

Co-rumination is a dyadic process between relationship partners that refers to excessively discussing problems, rehashing problems, speculating about problems, mutual encouragement of problem talk, and dwelling on negative affect. Although studies have addressed youths' tendency to co-ruminate, little is known about the nature of co-ruminative conversations. The primary goal of the present study (N = 314 adolescent friend dyads) was to identify microsocial processes that sustain and reinforce problem talk among adolescent co-ruminating friends.

Relational aggression and psychological control in the sibling relationship: mediators of the association between maternal psychological control and adolescents' emotional adjustment.

The association between mothers' psychological control and their children's emotional adjustment problems is well documented. However, processes that may explain this association are not well understood. The present study tested the idea that relational aggression and psychological control within the context of the sibling relationship may help to account for the relation between mothers' psychological control and adolescents' internalizing symptoms.

Associations of Mothers' Friendship Quality with Adolescents' Friendship Quality and Emotional Adjustment.

Little research has examined the association of parents' friendships with adolescent's well-being, perhaps because the association was considered too distal. However, developmental theories suggest that contexts in which parents, but not their children, are situated may be related to child development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; 1986). The current work examined associations between the quality of mothers' own friendships and their adolescent children's friendship quality and emotional adjustment.

Brief report: adolescents' co-rumination with mothers, co-rumination with friends, and internalizing symptoms.

The current research examined co-rumination (extensively discussing, rehashing, and speculating about problems) with mothers and friends. Of interest was exploring whether adolescents who co-ruminate with mothers were especially likely to co-ruminate with friends as well as the interplay among co-rumination with mothers, co-rumination with friends, and anxious/depressed symptoms. Early- to mid-adolescents (N = 393) reported on co-rumination and normative self-disclosure with mothers and friends and on their internalizing symptoms in this cross-sectional study.

Co-rumination mediates contagion of internalizing symptoms within youths' friendships.

Peer contagion of internalizing symptoms was examined within youths' friendships over 6 months. Children (Grades 3 and 5) and adolescents (Grades 7 and 9) paired in 274 reciprocal same-sex friendship dyads completed measures of depressive and anxiety symptoms, co-rumination, and self-disclosure. Depression contagion was present for all youth, and anxiety contagion was found in the sample of girls and older boys.

How girls and boys expect disclosure about problems will make them feel: implications for friendships.

Although girls disclose to friends about problems more than boys, little is known about processes underlying this sex difference. Four studies (Ns = 526, 567, 769, 154) tested whether middle childhood to mid-adolescent girls and boys (ranging from 8 to 17 years old) differ in how they expect that talking about problems would make them feel. Girls endorsed positive expectations (e.

The "cost of caring" in youths' friendships: considering associations among social perspective taking, co-rumination, and empathetic distress.

The current research considered the costs of caring in youths' friendships. The development of a new construct, empathetic distress, allowed for a direct test of the commonly held belief that females suffer greater vicarious distress in response to close others' stressors and problems than do males. Empathetic distress refers to one's strongly sharing a relationship partner's distress over problems to the point of taking on the partner's distress and experiencing it as one's own.

Prospective associations between friendship adjustment and social strategies: friendship as a context for building social skills.

The proposal that friendships provide a context for the development of social skills is widely accepted. Yet little research exists to support this claim. In the present study, children and adolescents (N = 912) were presented with vignettes in which a friend encountered a social stressor and they could help the friend and vignettes in which they encountered a stressor and could seek help from the friend.

Brief report: Activities in heterosexual romantic relationships: grade differences and associations with relationship satisfaction.

Whereas much research addresses relations of youths' heterosexual romantic relationships with sexual and/or delinquent activities, less attention has been paid to youths' more normative, day-to-day activities with romantic partners. This gap in the literature is problematic given that these activities define the substance of the relationships and likely are connected to relationship satisfaction. In the current study, 223 youths in fifth (28 boys; 32 girls), eighth (31 boys; 40 girls), and eleventh (36 boys; 56 girls) grades reporting current romantic relationships indicated their engagement in activities with romantic partners and relationship satisfaction.

Conversational Self-Focus in Adolescent Friendships: Observational Assessment of an Interpersonal Process and Relations with Internalizing Symptoms and Friendship Quality.

Although youth with internalizing symptoms experience friendship difficulties, surprisingly little is known about their problematic interpersonal behaviors. The current observational study identifies a new construct, conversational self-focus, defined as the tendency to direct the focus of conversations to the self and away from others. Results indicated that youth with internalizing symptoms were especially likely to engage in self-focus when discussing problems with friends and that doing so was related to their friends perceiving the relationship as lower in quality, particularly helping.

Adjustment trade-offs of co-rumination in mother-adolescent relationships.

The current study examined co-rumination (i.e., extensively discussing, rehashing, and speculating about problems) in the context of mother-adolescent relationships.

Do perceived popular adolescents who aggress against others experience emotional adjustment problems themselves?

Aggression is associated with a host of behavioral, social, and emotional adjustment difficulties. However, some aggressive youth are perceived as "popular" by peers. Although these perceived popular aggressive youth appear relatively well adjusted, especially in the social domain, the emotional well-being of these youth is understudied.