Interpersonal relations in adolescence

Strong evidence links positive and negative features of adolescent friendship to
adjustment outcomes. However, the majority of these studies adopt a variable-oriented
approach, which can obscure differences between subgroups. This study used a
person-oriented approach to examine the patterns of friendship quality and their
association with adolescent adjustment outcomes. To this end , both members of 88
stable friendships reported on the quality of their relationship and target adolescents
reported on their adjustment (behavior problems, friendship competence, scholastic
competence, behavioral conduct, global self-worth, and school grades) at both Grade 6
and Grade 7. K-means cluster analyses identified three distinct patterns in friendship
quality at both Grade 6 and Grade 7: /ow positivity, high negativity, and high quality.
These groups exhibited structural stability. The high negativity group and the high
quality group both exhibited interindividual stability. Person-oriented analyses indicated
adolescents in the high quality group tended to have the best adjustment outcomes,
whereas adolescents in the high negativity group tended to have the worst adjustment
outcomes. Additionally, person-oriented analyses indicated that adolescents whose friendships increased in quality also tended to report increased friendship competence.
Adolescents whose friendships decreased in quality tended to report decreased global
self-worth . Supplemental variable-oriented analyses generally complemented the
findings of the person-oriented analyses. Overall, these findings suggest that many
adolescents have enduring friendships that are less than ideal. Moreover, different low
quality friendships have different associations with adjustment. These findings also
suggest that friendships may not have pervasive influence on adjustment outcomes.
Specifically, friendship quality appears to be strongly associated with behavior
problems, friendship competence, and self-esteem.

Adolescence is a period of significant changes in relationships with mothers,
specifically parent-adolescent conflict increases from childhood into adulthood. The
present investigation is designed to address these differences by using adolescent and
mother reports of conflict and relationship quality. The investigation addresses four
research questions. (1) Do characteristics of conflict with mothers differ for adolescents
with and without clinical problems? (2) Do perceptions of mother-child relationship
quality differ for adolescents with and without clinical problems? (3) Do family
characteristics moderate differences between clinical and nonclinical youth in motherchild
of conflict? (4) Do family characteristics moderate differences between clinical and
nonclinical youth in mother-child relationship quality? The results demonstrated that the
clinical group reported more conflicts, greater affect, and less post-conflict interaction
than those of the nonclinical group. The clinical group reported higher negativity than the nonclinical group. In addition, levels of positivity were higher for the nonclinical
group than for the clinical group.

This study of 91 dyads investigated concurrent and prospective bidirectional
associations between friendship quality and psychosocial adjustment in young
adolescents, using multiple-group structural equation modeling to detect gender
differences. Friend reports ofboth positive (social support) and negative features of
friendship, self-reports of two adjustment variables (internalizing problems and
externalizing problems), and self-reports of three dimensions of self-esteem (global selfworth,
behavioral conduct esteem, and close friendship esteem) were examined at two
time periods approximately one year apart. Principal findings were that grade 6
friendship negativity was inversely associated with grade 7 self-esteem, and positively
associated with grade 7 internalizing problems and externalizing problems, in the boys'
model but not girls' model. Chi-square difference testing confirmed a significant
difference between these paths in the girls' model and these paths in the boys' model.

As children enter adolescence, social status within the peer hierarchy gains
importance. Variable-oriented research has linked adolescent popularity with both
positive and negative adjustment outcomes. Popularity may be better understood with
reference to types or subgroups of similar individuals, identified through person-oriented
approaches. Resource Control Theory (RCT: Hawley, 1999) posits three distinct types of
popular adolescents: coercive, prosocial, and bistrategic. The existence and adjustment
correlates of the prosocial and coercive groups have been well-established, but little
evidence supports the existence of a bistrategic popular group of adolescents, and even
less is known about their adjustment correlates. The present study aims to confirm the
existence of the popularity groups hypothesized by RCT and to identify group differences
in social adjustment and problem behaviors.
A sample of 568 adolescents (n = 288 girls, 280 boys; M age = 12.50) completed
peer nomination procedures and self-report questionnaires in the Fall and Spring of the
7th and 8th grades. Longitudinal latent profile analyses classified adolescents into profile groups on the basis of initial physical aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial
behavior, and four time points of popularity spanning the 7th and 8th grades. Repeated
measures ANOVAs examined profile group differences in social adjustment (peer
acceptance, peer rejection, physical victimization, relational victimization, and preference
for solitude) and problem behaviors (disruptiveness and delinquency) across the 7th and
8th grades.
Results indicate that adolescents fall into one of four distinct groups: aggressive
popular, prosocial popular, bistrategic popular, and average. Bistrategic popular
adolescents evinced positive social adjustment, exhibiting the highest levels of popularity
and peer acceptance and the lowest levels of peer rejection, victimization, and preference
for solitude. Despite their social skill advantages, bistrategic popular adolescents were
also at risk for problem behaviors. Bistrategic popular adolescents scored above average
on problem behaviors, including physical and relational aggression, disruptiveness, and
delinquency. Bistrategic popular adolescents successfully navigate the social world in a
manner that both offers hope for positive long-term adjustment and concern for the same.

This study examines whether aggression and prosocial behavior shape changes in
perceptions of friendship quality within stable reciprocal best friend dyads. A
longitudinal Actor-Partner Interdependence Model was used to investigate whether
individual characteristics predict changes 6 to 12 weeks later in perceptions of
relationship support and negativity. The sample included 76 same-sex dyads drawn from
classrooms in grades 4 (M = 9.48 years) through 6 (M= 11.43 years) in two public
schools in the United States.

Adolescent friendships are critical for adjustment but are extremely unstable.
Dyadic characteristics may put friendships at risk for dissolution, whereas individual
characteristics may put individuals at risk for participating in unstable friendships. The
present study examines whether dyadic or individual school-related characteristics
predict rates of adolescent friendship dissolution. A sample of 410 adolescents (n=201 males, 209 females; M age=13.20 years) participated in 573 reciprocated friendships originating in the 7th grade which were followed from 8th-12th grade. Discrete-time survival analyses evaluated grade 7 dyadic and individual characteristics (sex, age, ethnicity, number of friends, peer acceptance, peer rejection, leadership, and school competence) as predictors of the occurrence and timing of friendship dissolution.
Dissimilarity in sex, peer acceptance, and school competence and similarity in
leadership predicted higher rates of friendship dissolution; individual characteristics were not significant predictors. Adolescents seeking friendships with more skilled individuals
risk suffering the downside of dissimilarity, namely dissolution.

One hundred and ninety-four 12 to 20 year old adolescents were administered two self-report questionnaires in order to examine interrelations and age related changes in relationship closeness, reciprocity, and authority with parents, peers, and romantic partners. It was hypothesized that, with age, adolescent's relations with parents would become less close and more mutual, while adolescent relations with peers and romantic partners would become closer with age. It was also hypothesized that subjects who have closer relationships with romantic partners would also have more mutual relationships with romantic partners. Results indicated that adolescents relations with parents became closer, but not more mutual, with age. Adolescent's relations with peers did not become closer with age, while adolescents relations with romantic partners became closer with age. In the romantic partner relationship, closer relationships were more mutual ones.

Conflict during adolescence has shown to have the potential for both beneficent consequences and adverse consequences. The present study addresses this paradox and attempts to understand it by examining relationship qualities as potential moderating influences. To examine these moderated associations between conflict rates and outcome measures in mother-child, father-child, and friend relationships, 469 students completed the Interpersonal Conflict Questionnaire, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale II, Intimate Friendship Scale, Network of Relationships Inventory, and Youth Self-Report. Regression analyses found that the level of negativity in the relationship moderated the associations between conflict rate and outcome measures such as grade point average, withdrawn behaviors, and delinquent behaviors.

This study examined early adolescent perceptions of daily disagreements and negative interactions in relationships with mothers and fathers and their association with adolescent reports of self-esteem, self- and mother reports of behavior problems, and school grades. An I-States as Objects Analysis (ISOA: Bergman, 1998) identified seven distinct conflict patterns in parent-adolescent relationships: amiable, squabbling, discordant, hostile, labile, tranquil, and avoidant. These groups exhibited structural and interindividual stability, with groups characterized by constructive conflict processes demonstrating more stability than adolescents in groups characterized by non-constructive conflict processes. ISOA procedures failed to identify coherent adolescent adjustment groups. Person-oriented analyses indicated adolescents in the amiable, labile, and tranquil groups tended to have the best adjustment outcomes, followed by adolescents in the discordant and avoidant groups, with the worst adjustment outcomes reserved for adolescents in the squabbling and hostile groups. Variable-oriented analyses indicated that conflict rate and relationship negativity predicted concurrent and subsequent adolescent adjustment; behavior problems predicted concurrent and subsequent characteristics of parent-adolescent conflict. Person-oriented failed to reveal statistically significant associations involving change in parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent adjustment aver time. Variable-oriented analyses indicated adolescent adjustment predicted changes in parent-adolescent conflict variables more consistently than parent-adolescent conflict predicted changes in adolescent adjustment variables.

The current study examined changes in mother-child and father-child relationships of 210 participants in a 3-year longitudinal study during the 6th through the 8th grade. In each relationship, latent growth curve models found that negativity had a gradual increase over the course of early adolescence, while the change in positivity during this period depended on the initial levels of positivity during the 6th grade. For those high in positivity during the 6th grade, positivity remained stable from 6th to 8th grade, while for those low in positivity during the 6th grade, positivity decreased substantially during this period. In addition, an examination of the links between the relationship features and adjustment measures, such as internalizing and externalizing problems, found that models with initial rates of the relationships predicting changes in adjustment were ideal in comparison to models with both initial rates of and changes in relationships linked to changes in adjustment.