It takes three: Selection, influence, and de-selection processes of depression in adolescent friendship networks.

The authors of this study tested a selection–influence–de-selection model of depression. This model explains friendship influence processes (i.e., friends' depressive symptoms increase adolescents' depressive symptoms) while controlling for two processes: friendship selection (i.e., selection of friends with similar levels of depressive symptoms) and friendship de-selection (i.e., de-selection of friends with dissimilar levels of depressive symptoms). Further, this study is unique in that these processes were studied both inside and outside the school context. The authors used a social network approach to examine 5 annual measurements of data in a large (N =847) community-based network of adolescents and their friends (M = 14.3 years old at first measurement). Results supported the proposed model: adolescents tend to select friends with similar levels of depression, and friends may increase each other's depressive symptoms as relationships endure. These two processes were most salient outside the school context. At the same time, friendships seemed to be ended more frequently if adolescents' level of depressive symptoms was dissimilar to that of their friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Links between social network closure and child well-being: The organizing role of friendship context.

Third grade children (N = 404) and their mothers completed questionnaires and participated in interviews designed to identify children's friendships across multiple contexts, determine levels of social network closure for these friendships, and assess child well-being. Cluster analyses revealed distinct patterns in the contexts in which children's friendships were maintained. Closure was highest for children whose friendship clusters heavily represented relatives as friends and lowest when friends were from schools and the broader community. Intermediate levels of closure were observed for the clusters of neighborhood friends and friends from church and school. Both friendship cluster and, to some extent, ethnicity moderated associations between closure and indicators of well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family responses to HIV/AIDS in Mexico

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of household and community responses to HIV/AIDS in Mexico. Fieldwork took place in two contrasting settings: (a) Ciudad Netzahualcóyotl, a socially marginalized urban community and (b) the homosexual community of Mexico City, a sexually marginalized social network. 113 in-depth interviews were conducted with people with HIV/AIDS, their relatives and members of their social networks. This paper describes findings from interviews conducted with family members of persons with AIDS. Four stages of response are identified and characterized within each community: (i) life before AIDS, (ii) life during the discovery of AIDS, (iii) living with a person with AIDS and (iv) surviving those who have died from AIDS. The social marginalization of both communities is central in explaining how families respond to the disease. In Ciudad Netzahualcoyotl, social support derives from a local culture of kinship. In the gay community, on the other hand, solidarity arises out of friendship. Between social support and discrimination, many more "ambivalent" behaviours (neither fully supportive nor discriminating) are displayed by family members and friends. Fear, pre-existing family conflicts and prejudice nurture these negative responses. Family responses and the processes to which they give rise, also differ depending on whether or not a male or female household member is affected. Policy recommendations are made concerning how best to promote positive family and household responses to persons with HIV/AIDS and how to inhibit negative ones.     

Enhanced co-orientation in the perception of friends: A social relations analysis.

Newcomb's (1953) idea of co-orientation (interdependence between two persons' attitudes or perceptions) is used as a framework within which interpersonal perception between friends and acquaintances is examined. The principal question is whether co-orientation effects are stronger for friendship dyads than for acquaintance dyads. More specifically, the study examines the degree to which consensus, assimilation, self–other agreement, and assumed similarity differ. The social relations model is used to analyze a data set that included 16 living groups with 119 friend dyads and 1,668 acquaintance dyads. Results indicate that co-orientation effects are more pronounced in friendship dyads. The increment in co-orientation effects is largely due to similarities in the unique or idiosyncratic perceptions that people have of friendship pairs as well as the unique agreement about others that friends have with one another. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's friendship relations: A meta-analytic review.

Children's friendships represent mutual dyadic relationships that differ from peer relations, which have lesser affective ties. This meta-analytic review fit categorical models (L. V. Hedges, 1982) to examine the behavioral and affective manifestations of children's friendships as evinced by comparisons of friends and nonfriends. Analysis of our broadband categories revealed that friendships, compared with nonfriend relations, are characterized by more intense social activity, more frequent conflict resolution, and more effective task performance. Also, relationships between friends are marked by reciprocal and intimate properties of affiliation. At the level of narrowband categories, friendship relations afford a context for social and emotional growth. These behavioral and affective manifestations of friendship are moderated by the age level of participants, the strength of the relationship, and the methodology of the study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family cohesion, family adaptability, social support, and adolescent depressive symptoms in outpatient clinic families.

The relationships among adolescent depressive symptoms and self-reported family cohesion, adaptability, satisfaction with family functioning, family structure, and social support received from family and friends were investigated in a sample of 93 families attending family therapy at an outpatient clinic. Results were in keeping with previous studies of nonclinical samples, in that family cohesion and family social support were inversely related to depression. In contrast to nonclinical samples, family characteristics were more strongly associated with depression among boys than among girls, and social support from friends did not act as a buffer against depression. The strongest predictor of depressive symptoms was adolescents' levels of satisfaction with the cohesiveness and adaptability in their families, suggesting the importance of subjective cognitive appraisal in the link between family functioning and depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent Girls' Interpersonal Vulnerability to Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Examination of Reassurance-Seeking and Peer Relationships.

A transactional, interpersonal framework involving adolescents' reassurance-seeking and peer experiences may be useful for understanding the emergence of gender differences in depression prevalence during the adolescent transition. Sociometric nominations of peer acceptance/rejection and ratings of friendship quality provided by adolescents and their friends were used to measure peer experiences among 6th-8th-grade adolescents (N = 520) over 3 annual time points. After controlling for age and pubertal development, significant but small prospective effects offered mixed support for hypotheses: (a) depressive symptoms and negative peer relations predicted increasing levels of girls' reassurance-seeking; (b) initial levels of reassurance-seeking and depressive symptoms predicted deteriorating friendship quality among girls and low friendship stability, respectively; and (c) reassurance-seeking combined with poor peer experiences predicted increases in girls' depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of social support and conflict on adolescent children of alcoholic and nonalcoholic fathers.

Studies of positive and negative social ties usually are done in isolation of each other, precluding an understanding of their relative contributions to psychological functioning. This research evaluated the effects of adolescents' conflict with and social support from key relationships (parents, siblings, and best friends) on adolescents' self-esteem, substance use, and externalizing symptoms. Ss were 296 adolescents and their parents; 145 families had alcoholic fathers, and 151 had nonalcoholic parents. Support and conflict provided by each network member showed only a mild negative correlation. Support from parents, but not siblings or best friends, was related to adolescents' reports of substance use and externalizing. Conflict with parents was consistently related to externalizing behaviors. There was no evidence that conflict within a relationship neutralizes the effectiveness of the support it provides. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Females’ quality of relationships in adolescence and friendship support in adulthood.

Thirty-one couples and their daughters participated in a study of the contribution of family and friendship relationships in adolescence, and of daughter/friend communication in adulthood to the adult daughters’ perception of friendship support in adulthood. Questionnaires and direct observation of communication skills were used to evaluate marital quality, parental quality, and friendship quality at Time 1 (T1). At Time 2 (T2), 7 years later, daughters and their best friends completed questionnaires and videotaped social support interactions. A hierarchical regression model was used to predict daughters’ perception of friendship support in adulthood. The findings indicated that higher levels of T1 mother/father marital satisfaction, higher levels of T1 mother/daughter positive communication, lower levels of T1 mother/daughter negative communication, and higher levels of T2 daughters’ validation during communication with best friend uniquely predicted higher levels of T2 daughters’ perception of friendship support. The findings suggest that family relationship quality in adolescence contributes to children’s ability to develop and maintain adaptive resources for coping with stress in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Friendship homophily among ethnic German immigrants: A longitudinal comparison between recent and more experienced immigrant adolescents.

Immigrant adolescents have been found to show high levels of friendship homophily (the tendency to prefer intra-ethnic over interethnic friends). Based on acculturation theories, we predicted longitudinal changes and interindividual differences in level and rate of change in friendship homophily by immigrant composition of school, parental objections to the cultural adaptation of their offspring, discrimination, and language use. Altogether 218 newcomer and 272 experienced adolescents who had emigrated from the former Soviet Union to Germany participated in 4 annual assessments. Friendship homophily was assessed by percentage of intra-ethnic friends. Results revealed higher levels of friendship homophily among newcomer (75%) than among experienced (65%) adolescents at Time 1, and a significant decrease over time was found only among newcomers. Higher age, higher percentage of immigrants at school, and lower levels of new language use all related to higher friendship homophily. Rate of change in friendship homophily was strongly related to change in new language use. Findings suggest that friendship formation with native adolescents is related to social learning processes, in which new language use plays a crucial role. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Association of negative and positive social ties with fibrinogen levels in young women.

The associations between positive and negative aspects of social relationships and fibrinogen, a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD), were examined in young, healthy women recruited from the community (n?=?46) and from a college campus (n?=?42). For community women, the perception that individuals in their social networks frequently undermined them was related to higher fibrinogen, independent of perceived frequency of support. For college women, fibrinogen was elevated among women with frequent undermining only when they also reported infrequent support. After controlling for other risk factors, the associations between social ties and fibrinogen remained significant in both samples. These results indicate that positive and negative social ties are associated with fibrinogen levels and suggest that social relationships may affect CHD risk in part through their influence on fibrinogen. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The co-occurrence of depression and substance abuse in late adolescence

This article examines the role of adolescent social relationships in fostering the occurrence and co-occurrence of depression and substance abuse, using two waves of data from a community sample of adolescents (N = 900). Multinomial logistic response models were estimated to identify the extent to which risk and protective features of youths' family and peer relations were differentially linked with depressive symptoms, substance abuse, and their co-occurrence. Taking a within-person, configurational approach to adolescent adaptation, contrasts involved four subgroups of adolescents: those high on both depressed mood and substance abuse, those who experience neither problem, those evidencing high levels of depressive symptoms only, and those high on substance abuse only. Risk for depressive symptoms was differentiated by its association with conflict and lack of support in the friendship domain. Substance abuse was associated with negative peer pressure, but these youth were otherwise little different from youths with no problems. Whereas co-occurrence of depression and substance use was associated with more difficulties in both the family and peer environments, the most distinctive risk was that of low family support. Discussion centers on the developmental antecedents of co-occurring problems and family relations during adolescence.     

Developmental relations between perceived social support and depressive symptoms through emerging adulthood: Blood is thicker than water.

Longitudinal trajectories of depressive symptoms, perceived support from family, and perceived support from friends were examined among 816 emerging adults (480 women; 59%). In the context of a larger longitudinal investigation on the predictors and course of depression, data were drawn from eight self-report questionnaire assessments that roughly spanned the third decade of life. An age-based scaling approach was used to model trajectories of depressive symptoms and perceived social support between the ages of 21 and 30. Associative models of the relations between depressive symptoms and perceived social support from family and friends were tested. Results indicated that depressive symptoms decreased and perceived social support increased during the study period. Associative models suggested that among women, higher initial levels of perceived support from family predicted slower decreases in depressive symptoms (b = .34, p     

Loneliness, social support and depression as interactive variables with cognitive status: testing Roy's model

This study examined the relationships between and among the variables of loneliness, social support, depression, and cognitive functioning in adults over 60, living in senior housing in a metropolitan area. Other variables, namely, life-satisfaction and ability to perform activities of daily living, were also measured. Although the research hypotheses were not supported, relationships between subjects' health status, life satisfaction, and self-assessment of health were significant. Assessment of these variables by community and advanced practice nurses who work with community elderly, to effect positive client outcomes, is presented within the context of Roy's adaptation model.     

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. Social strategies in response to these vignettes were assessed in the fall and spring of the school year. Different indicators of friendship adjustment had unique effects on youths' strategies in response to helping tasks. Whereas having more friends predicted decreases in avoidant or hostile strategies, having high-quality friendships predicted emotionally engaged strategies that involved talking about the problem. Moreover, whereas having more friends predicted increases in relatively disengaged strategies, like distraction and acting like the problem never happened, having high-quality friendships predicted decreases in these strategies. The present study also tested whether youths' strategies in the fall predicted changes in friendship adjustment by the spring. Only strategies which may be seen as major friendship transgressions (i.e., avoiding or blaming the friend when the friend encounters a problem) predicted changes in friendship over time. Collectively, these results provide important new information on the interplay between social competencies and friendship experiences and suggest that friendships may provide a critical venue for the development of important relationship skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Satisfaction with social support during crisis: Intimacy and self-esteem as critical determinants.

Satisfaction with social support was studied longitudinally in 113 17–40 yr old Israeli women following the outcome of both normal and medically complicated pregnancies (delivery by cesarean section, delivery of an infant weighing under 2 kg, or spontaneous abortion before the 3rd trimester). Ss were interviewed concerning the size of their social networks, the number of friends and family members in their networks, perceived intimacy with spouse, and perceived intimacy with at least 1 friend and 1 family member. Included in the interviews were measures of self-esteem, intimacy, social network structure, and satisfaction with support. Findings show that greater intimacy with spouse and with friends was related to greater satisfaction with support received during the crisis period. Intimate ties contributed to satisfaction with support independent of self-esteem, social network parameters, and type of pregnancy outcome. Social network parameters and pregnancy outcome were not related to satisfaction with support. Among Ss low in self-esteem, greater intimacy with family was related to lower satisfaction with support if the Ss lacked intimate ties with spouse or a friend. Clinical and social psychological theories regarding reaction to aid are discussed. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of optimism in social network development, coping, and psychological adjustment during a life transition.

The authors investigated the extent to which social support and coping account for the association between greater optimism and better adjustment to stressful life events. College students of both genders completed measures of perceived stress, depression, friendship network size, and perceived social support at the beginning and end of their 1st semester of college. Coping was assessed at the end of the 1st semester. Greater optimism, assessed at the beginning of the 1st semester of college, was prospectively associated with smaller increases in stress and depression and greater increases in perceived social support (but not in friendship network size) over the course of the 1st semester of college. Mediational analyses were consistent with a model in which increases in social support and greater use of positive reinterpretation and growth contributed to the superior adjustment that optimists experienced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual and structural origins of friendship and social position among professionals.

Friendship affects individual and organizational well-being through direct relations, social positions, and complex network structures. In this study, the authors use longitudinal data from 2 groups of master's of business administration students to increase understanding of how friendship networks develop. The authors propose and test a dynamic model in which attribute similarity facilitates dyadic friendship ties, as well as similar network centrality and social position; early friendship increases later similarity in structural position and centrality; and early structural similarity enhances the likelihood of future friendship. Findings largely supported the model, demonstrating how homophily and early social contacts can jointly shape maturing friendship networks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived social support from friends and family and psychosocial functioning in bisexual young adult college students.

In this study, the authors investigated the degree to which perceived social support was associated with depression, life satisfaction, and internalized binegativity in a sample of 210 bisexual young adult college students. Two types of social support (general and sexuality specific) and 2 sources of social support (family and friends) were examined. Participants were recruited from the electronic mailing lists of organizations serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students on 32 university campuses, and data were gathered via an Internet survey. Results indicated that general social support was most predictive of depression and life satisfaction, whereas sexuality-specific support was most predictive of internalized binegativity. Both family support and friend support contributed to the prediction of each of the outcome variables. Although it was expected that the link between friend support and positive adjustment would be strongest at low levels of family support, none of the interactions between friend and family support was statistically significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions of friendships as supportive relationships.

Assessed 122 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th graders' perceptions of the social support provided by friends. During individual interviews, Ss were asked about the frequency of emotional support or intimate self-disclosure, tangible support or prosocial behavior, and other types of support provided by a particular friend. Ss were also asked about the frequency of conflicts with the friend and the frequency of supportive interactions and conflicts with a classmate who was only an acquaintance. Factor analyses revealed an increase with grade in the differentiation between the support and conflict dimensions of friendship and acquaintanceship. At all grades, Ss perceived friends as more supportive than acquaintances, but explanations for the lack of support from acquaintances changed with grade. Sixth graders often gave personal attributions (e.g., saying that the acquaintances were selfish or hostile). Eighth graders favored more situational attributions (e.g., saying that they had few supportive interactions with acquaintances because they rarely came in contact with them). The potential value of perceived-support measures in research on the consequences of friendship is discussed. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)