Personal values as a mediator between parent and peer expectations and adolescent behaviors.

The current study examined the mediating role of adolescents' personal values on the relation between maternal and peer expectations for prosocial behaviors and adolescents' self-reported prosocial and antisocial behaviors. One hundred thirty-four adolescents (mean age = 16.22 years, 54% girls) completed measures of their own values and behaviors, as well as their perceptions of the positive expectations that their mother and their best friend(s) had for their (the adolescents') prosocial behaviors. Stepwise regression analyses suggested that adolescents' personal prosocial values mediated the relation between adolescents' perceptions of both maternal and peer expectations and adolescents' prosocial behaviors. In addition, for boys, perceptions of positive peer expectations were directly and negatively related to antisocial behaviors. The current study has important implications for parents, educators, and practitioners who are concerned about promoting adolescents' positive behaviors and discouraging negative behaviors.     

青少年同伴依恋对抑郁的影响:朋友社会支持和自尊的中介作用

为探讨青少年同伴依恋与抑郁的关系,以及社会支持和自尊在二者关系中的作用机制,采用父母和同伴依恋问卷(IPPA)中的同伴依恋分量表、领悟社会支持量表(PSSS)、自尊量表(SES)和流调中心用抑郁量表(CES-D)对668名中学生进行调查,结果发现:(1)青少年同伴依恋、朋友社会支持和自尊两两之间呈显著正相关,且三者与抑郁均呈显著负相关。(2)青少年同伴依恋不仅能直接负向预测抑郁,而且还能通过自尊的单独中介作用对抑郁产生影响;朋友社会支持的单独中介作用以及社会支持→自尊的链式中介作用在初、高中生群体中存在差异,即在初中生群体中,同伴依恋能够通过社会支持的单独中介作用以及社会支持→自尊的链式中介作用对抑郁产生影响,而在高中生群体中,这两种间接作用均不显著。研究结果揭示了青少年同伴依恋对抑郁产生影响的心理机制,为引导青少年建立良好的同伴依恋,促进自尊及心理健康发展提供了有益建议。     

母亲消极教养、同伴侵害与FKBP5基因对青少年抑郁的影响

累积压力假说与匹配-不匹配假说均可解释远端和近端逆境对个体抑郁的影响, 但鲜有研究考察遗传基因在其中的调节作用。采用问卷法和DNA分型技术, 对970名青少年进行间隔3年的追踪调查。分别以母亲消极教养、同伴侵害为远端和近端压力指标, FKBP5基因多位点累加得分为遗传指标, 考察三者对青少年抑郁的交互作用及性别差异。结果发现, 在男青少年中, E × E × G显著。当累加得分较高、同伴侵害水平较高时, 母亲消极教养显著负向预测抑郁, 符合匹配-不匹配假说; 累加得分较低时, E × E不显著, 但倾向于以累积压力假说的方式发挥作用。女青少年中, E × E × G不显著。研究结果提示, 在男青少年中, 累积压力假说与匹配-不匹配假说均可阐明抑郁的发生机制, 分别适用于携带不同FKBP5基因多位点累加得分的个体。     

Expectations and perceptions at school transitions: The role of peer status and aggression

This study integrated research on aggression, peer status, and social and academic functioning across the middle- and high-school transitions. We examined how peer status and aggression are related to adolescents' expectations about their academic and social functioning in a new school system before the transition into that system, and their perceived academic and social functioning after the transition. Social preference, perceived popularity, overt and relational aggression, and social and academic expectations were assessed in Grades 5 and 8; identical peer status and aggression constructs and perceived social and academic functioning were assessed in Grades 6 and 9. Results indicated moderate correlations between adolescents' social and academic expectations and perceived functioning across both school transitions. Girls reported higher social and academic functioning than boys did in most cases. Perceived popularity was consistently positively associated with academic and social expectations for middle and high school, whereas social preference was associated with perceived social functioning in both middle school and high school. The link between aggression and outcome variables varied by age and was moderated by gender and peer status.     

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.     

Family and peer social support as specific correlates of adolescent depressive symptoms

Depression models that emphasize the social environment have not been tested with adolescents and their specificity to depressive symptoms has not been demonstrated In a study of 94 adolescent inpatients, distinctions were drawn between family and peer support to determine if these sources of support were differentially related to depression symptoms. Step-down multivariate multipleregression analyses showed that depression symptoms were uniquely predicted by social relationship variables after accounting for the effects of anxiety and conduct disorder symptoms. Depression was negatively related to family and paternal support, but it was positively related to peer support. Furthermore, family and paternal support interacted with peer support in the prediction of depression. The results are consistent with the assertion that disturbances in important supportive attachments have special significance for the experience of depressive symptoms by adolescents.This research was supported by postdoctoral research fellowship funds provided to the first author by the National Research Council and a grant to the second author by the Graduate Student Association of Arizona State University. The authors express appreciation to Dr. Ruedi Hahnloser, Senior Psychologist, and the patients and staff of Camelback Hospitals for their cooperation in conducting this research.     

Relations among early adolescents' parent-adolescent attachment, perceived social competence, and friendship quality

To assess whether the relation between attachment and friendship quality may be explained by social competence, 113 students in Grades 7 and 8 from the Baltimore metropolitan area completed self-report questionnaires on the variables of interest. In hierarchical regression analyses, both maternal Affective Quality of Attachment and the interaction of School with paternal Affective Quality of Attachment predicted social competence. Also, the interaction of School with paternal Affective Quality of Attachment predicted negative friendship features, whereas social competence predicted positive friendship features. These findings provide support for a pathway between adolescents' attachment to both parents and adolescents' perceived social competence and, in turn, their friendship quality.     

Protective Effects of Maternal and Peer Support on Depressive Symptoms during Adolescence

The current study examined the contributions of maternal and peer support to depressive symptoms in early to mid-adolescence and variation in these contributions across age, gender, and race. Five waves of data on maternal support, peer support, and depressive symptoms were collected on rural youth (N = 3,444) at 6 month intervals. Multilevel modeling was used to evaluate within and between-person effects of maternal and peer support on depressive symptoms. Within-person effects of peer support did not vary by age, gender, or race. At the between-person level, peer support predicted levels of depressive symptoms at age 12, but this effect became nonsignificant after controlling for maternal support. Within-person effects of maternal support did not vary with age but were qualified by gender and race. Between-person effects of maternal support on depressive symptom levels at age 12 and slopes varied across race and gender, respectively. Findings highlight the robustness of the protective effects of maternal and peer support during adolescence among girls and white youth.     

Reciprocal, Longitudinal Associations Among Adolescents' Negative Feedback-Seeking, Depressive Symptoms, and Peer Relations

This study examined reciprocal associations among adolescents' negative feedback-seeking, depressive symptoms, perceptions of friendship quality, and peer-reported social preference over an 11-month period. A total of 478 adolescents in grades 6–8 completed measures of negative feedback-seeking, depressive symptoms, friendship quality, global-self-esteem, and social anxiety at two time points. Peer-reported measures of peer status were collected using a sociometric procedure. Consistent with hypotheses, path analyses results suggested that negative feedback-seeking was associated longitudinally with depressive symptoms and perceptions of friendship criticism in girls and with lower social preference scores in boys; however, depressive symptoms were not associated longitudinally with negative feedback-seeking. Implications for interpersonal models of adolescent depression are discussed.     

DEPLOYMENT STATUS: A DIRECT OR INDIRECT EFFECT ON MOTHER–CHILD ATTACHMENT WITHIN A CANADIAN MILITARY CONTEXT?

Research has suggested that military spouses experience increased depressive symptoms and parenting stress during a military member's deployment. A relationship between maternal depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and child attachment security has been found in the general population, as has an indication that social support may provide a buffering effect. While there appears to be an association between the emotional well‐being of military spouses and child emotional well‐being during deployment, data are limited regarding the association between maternal emotional well‐being and child attachment security. The current study explores the association between deployment status and child attachment to the nonmilitary parent (i.e., the mother in this study) in a sample of 68 Canadian military families. Results revealed a significant impact of deployment status on maternal depressive symptoms and on quality of child attachment. The impact of deployment status on attachment was not mediated through the maternal variables, and despite a main effect of social support on the maternal variables, there was no moderating effect. Thus, our results suggest that deployment may affect child attachment independently of maternal well‐being.     

Susceptibility to peer influence: using a performance-based measure to identify adolescent males at heightened risk for deviant peer socialization

A substantial amount of research has suggested that adolescents' attitudes and behaviors are influenced by peers; however, little is known regarding adolescents' individual variability, or susceptibility, to peer influence. In this study, a performance-based index from an experimental paradigm was used to directly measure adolescents' susceptibility to peers. A total of 36 adolescent boys participated in a "chat room" experiment in which they ostensibly were exposed to deviant or risky social norms communicated either by high-peer-status (i.e., popular, well-liked) or low-peer-status (i.e., unpopular, disliked) grade mates who actually were electronic confederates. Changes in adolescents' responses before and after exposure to peer norms were used as a measure of peer influence susceptibility. These same adolescents completed a questionnaire assessment at the study outset and again 18 months later to assess their actual engagement in deviant behavior and their perceptions of their best friend's engagement in deviant behavior. Only among adolescents with high levels of susceptibility to high-status peers was a significant longitudinal association revealed between their best friend's baseline deviant behavior and adolescents' own deviant behavior 18 months later. Findings support the predictive validity of a performance-based susceptibility measure and suggest that adolescents' peer influence susceptibility may generalize across peer contexts.     

Cognitive Moderators of the Longitudinal Association Between Peer Rejection and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

This longitudinal study examined peer rejection as a predictor of adolescent depressive symptoms during the critical developmental period associated with substantial increases in the prevalence of girls' depression. In a sample of 158 adolescents aged 15-17 years, a peer nomination, sociometric assessment was conducted to examine adolescents' peer status at an initial time point, along with self-report measures of depressive symptoms, depressogenic attributions, and peer importance. Adolescents completed a second measure of depressive symptoms 17 months later. Results were consistent with integrated cognitive vulnerability-stress and cognitive dissonance models, particularly for girls. Specifically, peer rejection was a significant prospective predictor of depressive symptoms when combined with high levels of importance ascribed to peer status and high levels of adolescents' depressogenic attributional styles.     

亲子依恋、同伴依恋与青少年消极情感的关系:有调节的中介模型

以3353名初一、初二、高一、高二年级学生为被试,探讨了青少年消极情感的特点,并进一步检验了不同依恋类型对青少年消极情感的独特效应、同伴依恋在亲子依恋与消极情感中的中介作用以及二者对消极情感的交互作用。结果发现:1)青少年的消极情感水平总体上呈现从初一到高二逐渐上升的趋势,且女生得分显著高于男生;2)同伴与父子依恋对消极情感的独特效应显著,但母子依恋的独特效应不显著,且同伴依恋在消极情感中的独特效应显著高于父子与母子依恋;3)同伴依恋部分中介父子依恋与消极情感、完全中介母子依恋与消极情感的联系,同时,父子与母子依恋又调节同伴依恋对消极情感的影响,表现为同伴依恋对消极情感的预测在高亲子依恋个体中更显著。因而,依恋对消极情感的作用机制中,间接效应模型与交互作用模型同时成立,是有调节的中介效应。     

Body dissatisfaction, maternal appraisal, and depressive symptoms in Hong Kong adolescents

Body dissatisfaction, its risk factors and association with depressed mood have been well investigated in the West. However, more studies are needed to examine further the relation between body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms and the factors influencing body dissatisfaction in non-Western cultures. The present study examined in a sample of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents the relation between body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms, and the relation of maternal appraisal of their adolescent's figure to the adolescent's body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms. We obtained information from 379 boys and 254 girls about their body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms. Their mothers provided information about their appraisal of their adolescent's body shape and size compared to ideal. Body dissatisfaction was related to depressive symptoms in girls (B = 2.58, p <.01), but not in boys (B = -0.08, p >.10). Negative maternal appraisal did not have direct effects on adolescents' depressive symptoms (B = 0.14, p =.75), but the association between negative maternal appraisal and body dissatisfaction was significantly stronger in adolescents whose ideal was smaller than they perceived themselves to be (B = 0.32, p <.01) than those whose ideal was larger than their own perception (B = 0.14, p < .01). Our findings suggest that maternal appraisal had indirect effects on mood, acting through adolescents' body dissatisfaction, and that body dissatisfaction may be a sex-specific risk factor for depression. This study points to the need for testing and adapting programs to reduce body dissatisfaction particularly in girls at risk for depression, and to raise mothers' awareness of the link between their negative appraisals and their adolescents' body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms.     

Attachment‐related expectations and mother‐referent memory bias in middle childhood

Understanding the cognitive processing of attachment‐relevant information has become a major focus of attachment research. Previous research demonstrated links between attachment and memory for attachment‐related information, but results were contradictory and did not control for mood‐effects. The current study aimed to provide a conceptual framework to capture inconsistencies. A straightforward memory bias hypothesis was derived and tested. Fifty children (aged 10–12) completed questionnaires assessing confidence in maternal support and depressive symptoms, and a memory task in which they recalled positive and negative words that referred to previous interactions with mother. Less confidence in maternal support and more depressive symptoms were linked to a more negative mother‐related memory bias. The effect of confidence in maternal support remained marginally significant when controlling for depressive symptoms, explaining the initial effect of depressive symptoms. These findings support attachment theory's hypothesis that attachment‐relevant information is processed in an attachment expectation‐congruent way.     

Conceptualizing the Prospective Relationship Between Social Support,Stress, and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents

The goal of the current study is to examine the relationship amongst social support, stress, and depressive symptoms within a transactional and diathesis-stress framework using a multi-wave, longitudinal design. At the initial assessment, adolescents (n = 258) completed self-report measures assessing social support (peer, classmate, parent, and total), dependent interpersonal stress, anxious symptoms, and depressive symptoms. Additionally, participants reported stress and symptomology in each of the four waves spanning six months. Results of time-lagged, idiographic, multilevel modeling indicated that stress mediated the relationship between lower parental, classmate, and total social support and subsequent depressive, but not anxious, symptoms. In contrast, lower levels of peer support were not associated with higher levels of stress and subsequent depressive symptoms. Additionally, only classmate support deficits significantly moderated the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms. Overall, the results suggest that deficits in parental and classmate support may play a greater role in contributing to adolescent depression as compared to deficits in peer support.     

MAOA基因T941G多态性与同伴侵害对男青少年早期抑郁的交互作用:COMT基因Val158Met多态性的调节效应

抑郁具有复杂的多基因遗传基础,然而既有研究大多采用单基因以及单基因-环境交互设计(G×E)考察抑郁的遗传机制。以757名男青少年为被试(初次测评时Mage=11.32岁,SD=0.49岁),采用多基因-环境交互(G×G×E)设计,本研究考察了MAOA(monoamine oxidase A,单胺氧化酶A)基因T941G多态性、COMT(catechol-O-methyltransferase,儿茶酚胺氧位甲基转移酶)基因Val158Met多态性与同伴侵害对青少年早期抑郁的影响。结果显示,MAOA基因T941G多态性与同伴侵害交互作用于青少年抑郁,同伴侵害仅显著正向预测G等位基因(而非T等位基因)青少年抑郁。而且,MAOA基因T941G多态性与同伴侵害的交互作用受到COMT基因Val158Met多态性的调节,上述交互作用仅存在于COMT Met等位基因而非Val/Val基因型携带者中。研究结果显示,抑郁的产生与个体差异存在多基因与环境间的复杂交互机制。     

Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Child Social Preference During the Early School Years: Mediation by Maternal Warmth and Child Emotion Regulation

This longitudinal study examined processes that mediate the association between maternal depressive symptoms and peer social preference during the early school years. Three hundred and fifty six kindergarten children (182 boys) and their mothers participated in the study. During kindergarten, mothers reported their level of depressive symptomatology. In first grade, teachers rated children’s emotion regulation at school and observers rated the affective quality of mother-child interactions. During second grade, children’s social preference was assessed by peer nomination. Results indicated that mothers’ level of depressive symptomatology negatively predicted their child’s social preference 2 years later, controlling for the family SES and teacher-rated social preference during kindergarten. Among European American families, the association between maternal depressive symptoms and social preference was partially mediated by maternal warmth and the child’s emotion regulation. Although the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and children peer preference was stronger among African American families than Europrean American families, its mediation by the maternal warmth and child’s emotion regulation was not found in African American families.     

初中生抑郁与依恋、自我效能感的关系研究

对929个初中生施测抑郁自评量表,父母和同伴依恋问卷,一般自我效能感量表,以探讨父、母、同伴依恋和一般自我效能感对抑郁的影响模式.结果:(1)父(母)亲依恋、同伴依恋、一般自我效能感均与抑郁呈显著负相关;同伴依恋与父(母)亲依恋呈显著正相关.(2)结构方程模型分析发现:父(母)亲依恋直接影响同伴依恋,父(母)亲依恋和同伴依恋通过一般自我效能感间接影响抑郁,同时父(母)亲依恋和同伴依恋直接作用于抑郁.     

DRD2基因TaqIA多态性与同伴侵害对青少年早期抑郁的交互作用

本研究运用问卷法与DNA分型技术,对1063名青少年(初次测评年龄为12.32±0.47岁,50.3%女生)进行间隔2年的追踪调查,考察DRD2基因TaqIA多态性与同伴身体侵害和关系侵害对青少年早期抑郁的交互作用及其性别差异。结果发现,TaqIA多态性与身体侵害、关系侵害均对男青少年抑郁存在显著的交互作用。在携带A2A2基因型的男生中,身体侵害和关系侵害可以显著正向预测其抑郁水平,而在携带A1等位基因的男生中,同伴侵害对抑郁无预测作用。此外,TaqIA多态性与身体侵害、关系侵害对女生抑郁均无显著交互作用。研究结果提示,同伴侵害是一种重要的候选环境指标,与TaqIA多态性交互影响青少年早期抑郁,并且性别在这一基因×环境交互作用中起到重要的调节效应。