Shared targets for aggression by early adolescent friends.

Similarity in early adolescent friends' general aggressiveness is well known, but questions remain regarding the degree to which friends aggress against the same victims. The authors examined this by administering the newly created Dyadic Aggression and Victimization Inventory to 417 sixth- through eighth-grade boys and girls (53%). Friends were found to share more targets for aggression than nonfriends, even after general levels of aggression were controlled (all ps     

Developmental changes in gender composition of friendship networks in adolescent girls and boys.

This article describes both normative changes and individual differences in the gender composition of girls' and boys' friendship networks across adolescence and predicts variations in these changes. It also examines changes in the characteristics (context, age difference, closeness, and support) of same- and other-sex friendships in the network. Girls and boys (N=390) were interviewed annually from Grades 6 to 10 (76% retention). Growth in the proportion of other-sex friends was significantly more pronounced for girls and was related to different predictors for girls and boys. Moreover, over time, girls had other-sex friends that were increasingly older than themselves, and most of these friendships took place outside of the school, which was not the case for boys. Growth in the proportion of other-sex friends was more pronounced for secondary than for best friends. Finally, both girls and boys reported receiving higher levels of help from girls than from boys. These findings suggest that other-sex friendships might place some of the girls on a problematic developmental trajectory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Etiology and measurement of relational aggression: A multi-informant behavior genetic investigation.

Although the study of relational aggression is gaining attention in the literature, little is known about the underlying causes of this behavior and the relative validity of various informants. These issues were addressed in a sample of 1,981 6- to 18-year-old twin pairs (36% female, 34% male, 30% opposite-sex). Relational aggression was assessed via maternal and self-report using a structured interview. Univariate models estimated genetic and environmental influences by informant and examined evidence for gender differences. A psychometric model combined data from both informants to estimate etiologic influences that were both common to the informants and informant specific. In both sexes, the latent variable reflecting the mother’s and child’s shared perception of the child’s relational aggression was substantially influenced by both additive genetic (63%) and shared environmental (37%) influences, although this latent variable accounted for much greater variance in the maternal report (66%) than it did in the youth report (9%). In addition, informant-specific additive genetic and shared environmental influences were found only for the youth report, with all remaining variance in the mother’s report attributed to nonshared environmental influences. Results are discussed in the context of measuring relational aggression and the importance of multiple informants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental attachment and adolescents' emotional adjustment: The associations with social skills and relational competence.

Young people learn from their interactions with their parents how to initiate and maintain satisfying and warm friendships. Attachment with parents thereby plays an important role in adolescents' social and emotional adjustment. The model tested in this study proposes that the relation between parental attachment and emotional adjustment is mediated by social skills and relational competence. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the models and paths between concepts using data from a sample of 412 12–18-year-olds. In the 12–14-year-old age group, no effects of parental attachment on social skills and relational competence were displayed. However, in the 15–18-year-old age group, parental attachment was moderately related to social skills, which, in turn, affected middle adolescents' competence in friendships and romantic relationships. Parental attachment and relational competence were significant predictors of adolescents' emotional adjustment in both age groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Friend influence on prosocial behavior: The role of motivational factors and friendship characteristics.

This study examined motivation (prosocial goals), individual characteristics (sex, ethnicity, and grade), and friendship characteristics (affective quality, interaction frequency, and friendship stability) in relation to middle adolescents' prosocial behavior over time. Ninth- and 10th-grade students (N=208) attending a suburban, mid-Atlantic public high school and having at least 1 reciprocated friendship were followed for 1 year. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that a friend's behavior is related to an individual's prosocial goal pursuit, which in turn, is related to an individual's prosocial behavior. Further, the affective quality of a friendship and the frequency with which friends interact moderate relations of a friend's prosocial behavior to an individual's prosocial goal pursuit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk models of dating aggression across different adolescent relationships: A developmental psychopathology approach.

The present study examined physical dating aggression in different adolescent relationships and assessed linear, threshold, and moderator risk models for recurrent aggressive relationships. The 621 participants (59% girls, 41% boys) were drawn from a 1-year longitudinal survey of Canadian high school youths ranging from Grade 9 through Grade 12. Approximately 13% of participants reported recurrent dating aggression across 2 different relationships. Using peer and dyadic risk factors from Time 1 of the study, the authors confirmed a linear risk model, such that adolescents in 2 different violent relationships had significantly more contextual risk factors than did adolescents in 1 or no violent relationship. Further, structural equation modeling assessing moderation of contextual risk factors indicated that, for adolescents with high acceptance of dating aggression, peer aggression and delinquency significantly predicted recurrent aggression in a new relationship. In comparison, for adolescents with low acceptance of dating aggression, negative relationship characteristics significantly predicted recurrent aggression. Acceptance did not moderate concurrent associations between risk factors and aggression in 1 relationship. Results support a developmental psychopathological approach to the understanding of recurrent aggression and its associated risk factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

Prospective associations of co-rumination with friendship and emotional adjustment: Considering the socioemotional trade-offs of co-rumination.

Co-ruminating, or excessively discussing problems, with friends is proposed to have adjustment tradeoffs. Co-rumination is hypothesized to contribute both to positive friendship adjustment and to problematic emotional adjustment. Previous single-assessment research was consistent with this hypothesis, but whether co-rumination is an antecedent of adjustment changes was unknown. A 6-month longitudinal study with middle childhood to midadolescent youths examined whether co-rumination is simultaneously a risk factor (for depression and anxiety) and a protective factor (for friendship problems). For girls, a reciprocal relationship was found in which co-rumination predicted increased depressive and anxiety symptoms and increased positive friendship quality over time, which, in turn, contributed to greater co-rumination. For boys, having depressive and anxiety symptoms and high-quality friendships also predicted increased co-rumination. However, for boys, co-rumination predicted only increasing positive friendship quality and not increasing depression and anxiety. An implication of this research is that some girls at risk for developing internalizing problems may go undetected because they have seemingly supportive friendships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overt and Relational Aggression and Perceived Popularity: Developmental Differences in Concurrent and Prospective Relations.

Relations of overt and relational aggression with perceived popularity among children and early adolescents were examined in 2 studies (Ns = 607 and 1,049). Among older youths, positive concurrent relations found between overt aggression and perceived popularity became nonsignificant when relational aggression was controlled, whereas positive associations found between relational aggression and perceived popularity held when overt aggression was controlled. Aggression and perceived popularity were not positively related for the younger participants. The 2nd study also examined the temporal ordering of these relations over 6 months. For older girls, positive relations between relational aggression and perceived popularity were bidirectional. For older boys, relational aggression did not predict increased perceived popularity, but perceived popularity predicted increased relational aggression. Implications for intervention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroendocrine regulation and physical and relational aggression: The moderating roles of child maltreatment and gender.

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the association between circadian rhythms of cortisol and physical and relational aggression. Morning arrival, prelunch, and afternoon predeparture salivary cortisol were assessed among 418 maltreated and nonmaltreated children (52% maltreated; 49% female) attending a summer day camp. Counselors and peers rated participants' involvement in physically and relationally aggressive behaviors. Results indicated that physical aggression was associated with heightened cortisol following morning arrival and relatively steep declines in cortisol over the day, whereas relational aggression was associated with low cortisol following morning arrival and blunted diurnal change in cortisol. Moreover, maltreatment was a significant moderator of this relationship such that aggression was related to greater cortisol dysregulation among nonmaltreated than among maltreated children. The findings suggest that physiological correlates of aggression may differ for physical and relational forms of aggression and among maltreated versus nonmaltreated populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital quality, parenting, and adolescent internalizing problems: A three-wave longitudinal study.

The present 3-wave, 3-year longitudinal study examined direct and indirect associations between marital quality, parenting, and adolescent internalizing problems, taking into account bidirectional associations between these concepts. Data were used from 428 Dutch families, consisting of 2 biological parents and 2 adolescents with mean ages of 13.4 and 15.2 years (at Time 1). Results from structural equation modeling analyses showed that low marital quality at Time 1 was directly related to adolescent internalizing problems at Time 2 in oldest siblings. However, support was not found for any indirect associations through parenting or for longitudinal associations from adolescent internalizing problems to parents' marital quality. Results are discussed in terms of implications for understanding the mechanism by which marital quality is related to adolescent internalizing problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational disorders and relational processes in diagnostic practice: Introduction to the special section.

The special section addresses a number of salient issues that will arise as the revision process for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) unfolds and the role of relational processes in mental health is considered. This collection of articles, which emphasize historical, conceptual, and empirical contributions to the discussion, is intended to stimulate debate in the field and to serve as a resource for individuals charged with proposing new diagnostic guidelines. Jointly, the articles make it clear that the authors can improve on the current treatment of relational processes in the DSM and that there is a solid foundation of family research that can inform any discussion on this topic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing the forms and functions of aggression using self-report: Factor structure and invariance of the Peer Conflict Scale in youths.

This study examined the structure of a self-report measure of the forms and functions of aggression in 855 adolescents (582 boys, 266 girls) aged 12 to 19 years recruited from high school, detained, and residential settings. The Peer Conflict Scale (PCS) is a 40-item measure that was developed to improve upon existing measures and provide an efficient, reliable, and valid assessment of four dimensions of aggression (i.e., reactive overt, reactive relational, proactive overt, and proactive relational) in youths. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a 4-factor model represented a satisfactory solution for the data. The factor structure fit well for both boys and girls and across high school, detained, and residential samples. Internal consistency estimates were good for the 4 factors, and they showed expected associations with externalizing variables (i.e., arrest history, callous-unemotional traits, and delinquency). Reactive and proactive subtypes showed unique associations consistent with previous literature. Implications for the use of the PCS to assess aggression and inform intervention decisions in diverse samples of youths are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression socialization within friendship groups at the transition to adolescence: The roles of gender and group centrality as moderators of peer influence.

Tests of interpersonal theories of depression have established that elevated depression levels among peers portend increases in individuals' own depressive symptoms, a phenomenon known as depression socialization. Susceptibility to this socialization effect may be enhanced during the transition to adolescence as the strength of peer influence rises dramatically. Socialization of depressive symptoms among members of child and adolescent friendship groups was examined over a 1-year period among 648 youth in grades six through eight. Sociometric methods were utilized to identify friendship groups and ascertain the prospective effect of group-level depressive symptoms on youths' own depressive symptoms. Hierarchical linear modeling results revealed a significant socialization effect and indicated that this effect was most potent for (a) girls and (b) individuals on the periphery of friendship groups. Future studies would benefit from incorporating child and adolescent peer groups as a developmentally salient context for interpersonal models of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality similarity and friendship: A follow-up study.

This study repeated the procedures of an earlier study (see 35: 2117) that showed similarity of objectively measured (Edwards Personality Preference Schedule) personality characteristics to be a significant correlate of friendship. Experiment I tested the repeatability of this finding with a similar sample (college freshmen) and the results again supported the similarity principle. Experiment II tested the generalizability of the earlier finding. The procedures were applied to a different population (college seniors), and the results failed to confirm the similarity hypothesis. Personality differences between freshmen and seniors can be viewed as a function of increased social and emotional maturity on the part of seniors (Izard, 1962). Perhaps the more "mature" person has less need to see his personality characteristics reflected in his friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital and severe parent-to-adolescent physical aggression in clinic-referred families: Mother and adolescent reports on co-occurence and links to child behavior problems.

This study examined the interplay of marital and severe parental physical aggression, and their links to child behavior problems, in 232 families of clinic-referred adolescents. Combined reports from mothers and adolescents indicated that two thirds of adolescents exposed to marital aggression in the past year had also experienced parental aggression. Mothers and fathers who used and/or were victims of marital aggression were both more likely to direct aggression toward their adolescent. Mother and youth reports of marital aggression were tied to each party's report of greater externalizing problems and to youth reports of greater internalizing problems. Severe parental aggression uniquely predicted maternal reports of both behavior problems, after controlling for marital aggression; the reverse was not true. Also, adolescents exposed to both types of family aggression did not display greater maladjustment than those subjected to only one type of family aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Varying forms of husband sexual aggression: Predictors and subgroup differences.

The relationships between two forms of husband sexual aggression (coercion and threatened/forced sex) and husband physical and psychological aggression were examined among a community sample of 164 couples. A stronger relationship between physical and sexual aggression was obtained than in previous research. Husbands' physical and psychological aggression predicted husbands' sexual coercion, but only physical aggression predicted threatened/forced sex. The more severely physically violent subtypes of the A. Holtzworth-Munroe et al. (2000) typology engaged in the most sexual coercion, and the most violent subtype (generally violent/antisocial) engaged in the most threatened/forced sex. In examining C. M. Monson and J. Langhinrichsen-Rohling's (1998) typology, the existence of a sexually violent-only subtype was documented, physically nonviolent husbands were found to engage in sexual coercion, and sexually and physically violent husbands engaged in the highest level of sexual aggression. The utility of using multiple measures, and both spouses' reports, to assess sexual aggression is emphasized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer relationships and diabetes: Retrospective and ecological momentary assessment approaches.

Objective: To examine the association of positive and negative aspects of friendship to psychological well-being, self-care behavior, and blood glucose control and to determine whether these relations were moderated by gender. Design: Adolescents with Type 1 diabetes (n = 76) completed baseline measures of friendship quality, depressive symptoms, and self-care. A measure of metabolic control was obtained from medical records. Adolescents also tested blood glucose periodically over the course of 4 days and completed ecological momentary assessments of interpersonal interactions and mood using PDAs. Main Outcome Measures: For between-groups analyses, primary outcomes were depressive symptoms, self-care behavior, and metabolic control. For within-groups analyses, primary outcomes were mood and blood glucose. Results: Results showed baseline reports of peer conflict but not support were associated with outcomes, particularly among girls. Conflict was more strongly related to poor metabolic control for girls than boys. Momentary interaction enjoyment and interaction upset were associated with mood, but were unrelated to blood glucose. Aggregate indices of enjoyable interactions were associated with fewer depressive symptoms and better self-care—especially among girls. Conclusions: These results suggest that the positive and negative aspects of peer relationships are related to the psychological well-being and physical health of adolescents with diabetes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational schemas and the developing self: Perceptions of mother and of self as joint predictors of early adolescents' self-esteem.

This 1-year longitudinal study examined early adolescents' (N=278, age 11-13 years) perceptions of their mother's behavior (affection, knowledge of child's activities, and psychological control) and of how they react to their mother (trust in mother, defiance, and debilitation) as predictors of self-esteem among peers. Perceived maternal affection predicted self-esteem for girls; perceived psychological control forecast lower self-esteem for boys. Perceptions of self as untrusting, defiant, or debilitated led to lower self-esteem. Furthermore, perceived maternal behavior interacted with perceived self-reactions to predict self-esteem: Perceived debilitation led to reduced self-esteem only under high perceived maternal psychological control; perceived defiance predicted lower self-esteem only under low perceived maternal knowledge. The prediction of self-esteem is clearly enhanced when perceived self-reactions are included along with perceived maternal behavior as predictors. Combinations of perceived maternal behavior and perceived self-reactions--relational schemas--warrant increased attention as possible influences on the developing self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leadership, followership, and friendship: an analysis of peer nominations.

"The relationship between leadership, followership, and friendship peer nominations was studied within eight sections of Naval Aviation Cadets, N = 187… . From the results it may be concluded that peer nominations on leadership are by no means a total function of friendship ties; quite the contrary, friendship appears to play only a minor role in the emergence of leadership nominations. Furthermore, followership status is not necessarily implied by nonleadership status on peer nominations." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)