Friendship in adolescence

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.

Previous studies of desired friendship have assessed desired friends with
unilateral nominations (when one child chooses another child as a friend, but that friend
nomination is not reciprocated). This calls into question the validity of findings
suggesting that children want to be friends with others who differ from themselves, but
befriend similar others by default (Sijtsema, Lindenberg, & Veenstra, 2010). The current
study concerns desired friendships among 195 girls and 147 boys in Grades 4 through 6.
Two hypotheses were tested. The first hypothesis was that children will not choose the
same unilateral and desired friends. The second hypothesis was that children will be more
similar to their reciprocal friends than to their unilateral and desired friends.
Questionnaires measured desired friendship, friendship, and child characteristics. Both
hypotheses were supported. However, there were group-level differences. The
importance of using desired friend nominations to measure desired friends is discussed.

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.

Close friends have been shown to influence adolescent problem behaviors,
especially alcohol abuse (Urberg, Degirmencioglu, and Pilgrim, 1997). The degree of
influence, however varies as a function of individual characteristics such as peer
acceptance (Laursen, Hafen, Kerr, and Stattin, 2012) and age (Popp et al., 2008). The
present study examines whether differences in influence extend to perceptions of
friendship quality. Using a sample of 764 Swedish adolescents involved in stable samesex reciprocal best friend relationships that lasted at least one year, analyses used
distinguishable dyad actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) analyses (Kenny,
Kashy, & Cook, 2006) to track influence over two years of the friendship. More
satisfied friends were more influential than less satisfied friends on intoxication
frequency and truancy. The findings of this study indicate that influence accompanies perceptions of quality. Those with higher perceptions of quality exhibit more influence
on friends who perceive relatively lower quality.

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.

This study examined associations between friends, perceptions of conflict and friendship qualities. Early adolescent participants and their same-sex friends (N = 199 dyads) separately completed measures describing actual disagreements, friendship positivity, and negativity. Similar patterns of associations emerged for participant and friend reports of conflict and relationship qualities. Actor and partner associations were estimated with two statistical methods, the APIM (Kashy & Kenny, 2000) and the IDM (Griffin & Gonzalez, 1995). Actor associations suggested perceptions of conflict were linked to self-perceptions of friendship negativity and positivity. Partner associations suggested perceptions of conflict were linked to partner perceptions of friendship negativity, but not to partner perceptions of friendship positivity.

During a period of increased independence from parents, youth turn to peers for support, and consequently become more vulnerable to peer pressure (Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). During middle adolescence, vulnerability to peer influence begins to decline (Steinberg & Monahan, 2007). Empirical research has documented this trend in vulnerability to peer pressure across adolescence, but less attention has been afforded to the age-related changes in similarity. To address this, age-related changes in peer similarity in delinquency across the adolescent years were examinded using intraclass correlations. Moderating variables, including gender, reciprocity, and closeness, and control variables, including friendship stability and romantic partner status, were examined. Results indicated an increase in friend similarity in delinquency from 5th to 7th grade and a decrease in similarity from 7th to 9th grade. Implications of this study are discussed in terms of contribution to the field and implementation of the findings.

This study investigated friend influence on school engagement in a sample of 160 stable same-sex friendship dyads (94 female dyads and 66 male dyads) from five senior high schools and four vocational schools in a small city in central Finland. Longitudinal data were collected during the first and second years of upper secondary school, approximately one year apart, and self-reports were available from both members of each friendship dyad. The framework of the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; Kenny, Kashy & Cook, 2006) was used to estimate friend influence on school engagement in a model that did not distinguish same-sex friends, in a direct-effects model that distinguished friends based on relative levels of school burnout, and in a multiple-group model for distinguishable friends that investigated perceptions of maternal affection as a moderator of friend influence. Results suggest that the higher burnout partner in a friendship dyad influenced a decline in the lower burnout partner's school engagement only when the lower burnout partner perceived low maternal affection. When the lower burnout partner perceived high maternal affection, there was no evidence of negative influence by a higher burnout partner. Patterns of influence did not vary as a function of sex or school track. The importance of distinguishing friends on a theoretically and statistically meaningful basis to learn who influences whom, and of investigating indirect effects models when studying friend influence is also discussed.