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.     

Co-Rumination Exacerbates Stress Generation among Adolescents with Depressive Symptoms

Through stress generation, individuals’ own thoughts and behaviors can actually lead to increases in their experience of stress. Unfortunately, stress generation is especially common among individuals who are already suffering from elevated depressive symptoms. However, despite the acknowledgement that some individuals with depressive symptoms generate greater stress than others, few studies have identified specific factors that could exacerbate stress generation among individuals with depressive symptoms. The present study examines co-rumination as a factor that might exacerbate stress generation among adolescents with depressive symptoms using a short-term longitudinal design. Considering these processes among adolescents was critical given that many youth experience increases in depressive symptoms at this developmental stage and that co-rumination also becomes more common at adolescence. Participants were 628 adolescents (326 girls; 302 boys) who reported on their depressive symptoms, experiences of stress, and co-rumination with a best friend. Interpersonal stressors (peer and family stress) and non-interpersonal stressors (school and sports stress) were assessed. Consistent with past research, adolescents with depressive symptoms experienced greater interpersonal and non-interpersonal stress over time. Importantly, co-rumination interacted with both depressive symptoms and gender in predicting increases in peer stress. Depressive symptoms predicted the generation of peer stress only for girls who reported high levels of co-rumination with friends. Implications for protecting youth with depressive symptoms against stress generation are discussed.     

共同冗思的概念、测量和理论解释

共同冗思指个体在双向关系中过度讨论个人问题的行为。共同冗思对个体产生适应权衡效应,即它不仅与积极的友谊属性有关,还与抑郁和焦虑等内化问题相关。以往研究主要分析共同冗思的性别差异、发展特点及其在不同亲密关系中的表现。结果发现共同冗思的适应权衡效应在女性群体中比在男性群体中更为突出,在青少年群体中比在儿童群体中更为突出。研究者主要从同伴传染、压力生成、共情痛苦以及生理机制等角度解释共同冗思与内化问题的关系。友谊等亲密关系中的共同冗思对个体适应的负面影响难以察觉,它可以作为个体抑郁和焦虑等内化问题的危险信号。后续研究可以从考察共同冗思的人格以及环境影响因素等角度深化对该主题的理解。     

Is Family Expressiveness as Reported by Mothers and Fathers Related to Children’s Social Anxiety Symptoms?

We examined family expressiveness as reported by mothers and fathers with respect to children’s report of social anxiety symptoms. Participants consisted of a clinical sample of 178 youth (8–16 years) and their parents. The sample was largely homogenous (163 Caucasians, 6 African American, 4 Hispanic, 5 Asian/Native American; 118 boys, 60 girls), and for analytic purposes, divided into two age groups: young children between 8 and 10 years and preadolescents and adolescents between 11 and 16 years. Youth completed the Social Anxiety subscale of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children and parents completed the Expressiveness subscale of the Family Environment Scale. The Expressiveness subscale measures the extent to which family members openly and directly express their emotions. We hypothesized that low levels of family expressiveness, as reported by mothers and fathers, would be associated with heightened symptoms of social anxiety for both age groups of the youth. Contrary to predictions, no significant associations were observed between young children’s social anxiety and expressiveness. For older children, however, maternal reports of family expressiveness were negatively related to social anxiety symptoms (as predicted) whereas paternal reports of family expressiveness were positively related to youth’s social anxiety symptoms (counter to predictions). This later finding suggests that the more expressive the father perceived the family to be, the higher the symptoms of social anxiety reported by the older youth. Findings are discussed in terms of differential perceptions of family expressiveness and socialization by mothers and fathers and gender role stereotypes.     

Friendships and Romantic Relationships of Black and White Adolescents

Prior research on adolescent peer relationships has focused on interpersonal dimensions of friendships but not of romantic relationships, and has rarely examined minority groups. We used a random sample of 122 adolescents to examine race and gender differences in friendships, romantic relationships, and the congruence between closest friendship and romantic relationship on five interpersonal domains: mutual support, self-disclosure, hurtful conflict, fear of betrayal, and interpersonal sensitivity. Significant race by gender differences in the difference between relationship type for both positive and negative dimensions of relationships were found. White girls reported significantly higher levels of self-disclosure in their friendship ties in comparison to romantic relationship, whereas white boys reported nearly equivalent levels. In comparison to white adolescents, Black adolescent girls and boys had similar levels of self-disclosure in their romantic relationships as their same-sex friendships. With regards to negative elements of relationships, girls reported more hurtful conflict in romance than friendship, whereas boys reported an opposite pattern. Results highlight the importance of consideration of race and gender influences on youth interpersonal skills within peer and romantic relationships.     

Sex and age/grade differences in adolescents' self-disclosure

Few significant differences in self-disclosure were noted for 202 adolescents in Grades 8 and 12. Reliability and validity were reasonable but varied over 6 categories of disclosure. Both boys and girls disclosed more to target females and less to fathers. Findings agree with prior literature.     

Testing the Direction of Longitudinal Paths between Victimization,Peer Rejection,and Different Types of Internalizing Problems in Adolescence

The transition to secondary school is accompanied by the fragmentation of peer groups, while adolescents are also confronted with heightened incidents of bullying and increased levels of internalizing problems. Victimization, peer rejection, and internalizing problems are known to be interrelated, but how they influence each other over time remains unclear. We tested the direction of these associations by applying a cross-lagged path model among a large sample of Finnish adolescents (N = 5645; 49.1 % boys; M age at T1 = 14.0 years) after they transitioned to secondary school (grades 7–9). Self-reported depression, anxiety, and victimization and peer-reported rejection were measured 3 times over the course of 1 year. Results showed that depression was predictive of subsequent victimization for both boys and girls, in line with a symptoms-driven model; for girls, anxiety was reciprocally related to victimization, in line with a transactional model; for boys, victimization was related to subsequent anxiety, in line with an interpersonal risk model. Peer rejection was not directly related to depression or anxiety, but among girls peer rejection was bi-directionally related to victimization. Overall, our results suggest that associations between internalizing problems and peer relations differ between depression and anxiety and between genders. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

Is depression best viewed as a continuum or discrete category? A taxometric analysis of childhood and adolescent depression in a population-based sample

The authors examined the latent structure of depression in a population-based sample of children and adolescents. Youth's self-reports and parents' reports of the youth's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) major depressive symptoms were assessed via a structured clinical interview. The authors used Meehl's (1995) taxometric procedures to discern whether youth depression is dimensional or categorical. Taxometric analyses that explicitly took into account the skewness of depressive symptoms suggested that depression is a dimensional, not categorical, construct. The dimensional structure of depression was obtained for all of the DSM-IV major depressive symptoms as well as for different domains of depression (emotional distress symptoms and vegetative, involuntary defeat symptoms), youth and parent reports, and different subsamples (i.e., boys vs. girls and younger vs. older youth).     

Personality profile for adolescents at risk for internalizing and externalizing problems

To estimate the personality profile for adolescents at psychopathological risk, a community sample of 762 adolescents, ages 12 to 16 years (M = 13.8, SD = 1.3), 53% boys and 47% girls, from the city of Barcelona, Spain, were tested with the Youth Self-Report and the High School Personality Questionnaire. Among this group, 140 adolescents were identified as showing symptoms of psychopathological risk for internalizing or externalizing syndromes as defined by Achenbach's theory. Analysis indicated that adolescents who scored high for internalizing and externalizing symptoms showed differing personality profiles, which also differed by sex. Boys scoring high on internalizing tended to adopt an inhibited, shy, and apprehensive behavior, while girls showed a tendency to display a more distant and cold affect and changeable emotionality. The personality pattern of boys and girls who scored high on externalizing symptoms showed both similar and different aspects. Both sexes displayed characteristics such as dominance, poor rule conformity, and low self-discipline. However, girls who scored high on externalizing symptoms also tended to show impulsiveness, social boldness, and low sensitivity.     

The relationship between automatic thoughts and negative emotions in children and adolescents: a test of the cognitive content-specificity hypothesis

The aim of this study was to test the cognitive content-specificity hypothesis in children and adolescents aged 7-16 years. Participants consisted of a community sample of 200 youth and a clinical sample of 160 youth with anxiety, depressive, or disruptive behavior disorders. Participants completed several self-report measures assessing a wide range of negative beliefs and symptoms of internalizing and externalizing problems. Multivariate analyses examining the interrelationships between beliefs and noncognitive symptoms revealed that thoughts on loss or personal failure were the strongest predictors of depressive symptoms, thoughts on social threat were the strongest predictors of anxiety symptoms, and thoughts on hostility or revenge were the strongest predictors of aggression. Results showed clear evidence of cognitive-affective specificity across both internalizing and externalizing problems in youth.     

Facets of loneliness and depression among Chinese children and adolescents

The authors examined the relation among different facets of loneliness and depression in a sample of 6,356 Chinese children and adolescents from Grades 4-9. Loneliness and depression were closely related among the primary (Grades 4-6) and secondary (Grades 7-9) students, both boys and girls. Although the different facets of loneliness were predictive of the various facets of depression, peer-related loneliness and aloneness were more predictive of depression in both groups than was parent-related loneliness. The students in Grades 5 and 6 scored lower for loneliness but a little higher for depression than did the students in Grade 4. The students in Grades 8 and 9 scored higher than the students in Grade 7 for loneliness and depression. The primary boys scored higher than the primary girls for both loneliness and depression. Among the secondary students, there was no difference between the scores of the boys and those of the girls for loneliness, but the boys scored lower than the girls for depression.     

Gender differences in the development and adult outcome of co-occurring depression and delinquency in adolescence

Using a dual trajectory modeling approach, we examined co-occurring trajectories of depression and delinquency from age 11 to age 18 and their relation to adult outcome six years later in a community sample of 1423 (674 boys) adolescents. We also examined the effects of childhood externalizing, internalizing, and social problems on trajectory membership for depression and delinquency. The results showed that although more girls than boys were likely to follow high-level, co-occurring trajectories on depression and delinquency, the adult outcome of adolescents following high-level trajectories on both domains was poorer for boys than for girls. However, the combination of decreasing depression symptoms and increasing delinquency symptoms across adolescence was related with poorer adult outcomes for girls compared to boys. Finally, whereas boys' high-level co-occurring trajectory of depression and delinquency was predicted by childhood aggression, girls' equivalent trajectory was predicted by childhood depression and delinquency. The findings support the "gender paradox" effect (Loeber & Keenan, 1994) stating that in disorders with an unequal gender ratio, members of the gender with the lower prevalence rate tend to be more seriously affected in terms of comorbidity and poor outcome.     

Do extraversion and neuroticism moderate the association between bullying victimization and internalizing symptoms? A three-wave longitudinal study

The current study examined the moderating roles of neuroticism and extraversion in victims of bullying. According to a stress-diathesis model, we hypothesized that adolescents with high levels of neuroticism and low levels of extraversion would react to victimization with increased symptoms of depression and social anxiety. A sample of 1440 adolescents (648 girls and 792 boys; ages between 13- and 17-years-old) completed measures of extraversion and neuroticism at time 1, as well as measures of bullying victimization, depressive symptoms and social anxiety symptoms at time 1, time 2, and time 3 (in intervals of six months). The results of multilevel analyses for longitudinal data indicated that there was a weak association between bullying victimization and social anxiety symptoms for the adolescents who scored high on extraversion. In addition, the adolescents with high levels of extraversion presented a greater reduction in depressive symptoms over time than adolescents with low levels. Although neuroticism predicted both depression and social anxiety, no significant interactions were evident between neuroticism and bullying victimization. Regarding gender differences, the association between bullying victimization and social anxiety was stronger for boys than for girls, whereas the association between neuroticism and depression was stronger for girls.     

Behavioral Couples Treatment for Substance Use Disorder: Secondary Effects on the Reduction of Youth Internalizing Symptoms

This study examined the secondary effects of Behavioral Couples Treatment (BCT) for parents with substance use disorder on youth reports of internalizing symptoms (i.e., depressive and anxiety symptoms). Participants were 59 triads (father, mothers, and youth; 32 girls, 27 boys) in which one or both parents met criteria for drug or alcohol use disorder (or both). Mothers, fathers, and youth completed pretreatment, post-intervention, and 6-month post-intervention follow-up assessments. Two piecewise latent growth models examined whether number of sessions attended was associated with parents’ relationship satisfaction or its growth over time, and in turn if parents’ relationship satisfaction was uniquely associated with youth depressive/anxiety symptoms or their growth over time. A significant indirect effect at post-intervention revealed the number of sessions attended contributed to decreases in youth depressive symptoms via increases in mothers’ and fathers’ relationship satisfaction. Mothers’ relationship satisfaction uniquely mediated the relationship between number of sessions attended and youth depressive symptoms at post-intervention. With regards to fathers, there was a non-significant trend such that increases in sessions attended was associated with decreases in youth depressive symptoms post- intervention via increasing relationship satisfaction among fathers. Findings suggest that BCT may have protective secondary effects in reducing youth reports of depressive symptoms among couples in which one or both parents have substance use disorder.     

Stress,sense of coherence and emotional symptoms in adolescents

This paper aims to investigate the association between the domains of stress, sense of coherence (SOC) and emotional symptoms (depression and anxiety) in adolescents, as well as the potential moderating role of SOC on the relationship between stress and emotional symptoms. The study is based on a cross-sectional sample of 1183 adolescents aged 13–18 who attend public elementary and secondary schools in Mid-Norway. The results showed that girls scored higher than boys on stress related to peer pressure, home life, school performance, school/leisure conflict and emotional symptoms. Conversely, boys reported higher SOC than girls. Results from multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed that for boys, stress related to school performance was positively associated with symptoms of both depression and anxiety, whereas stress from peer pressure was associated with depressive symptoms. For girls, stress from peer pressure, romantic relationships and school was associated with more depressive symptoms. SOC was strongly and inversely associated with emotional symptoms, especially anxiety in girls. SOC also moderated the association between stress related to peer pressure and depressive symptoms in both genders. The study provides evidence of the association of SOC with stress and emotional symptoms during adolescence.     

A Longitudinal Study of Racial Discrimination and Risk for Death Ideation in African American Youth

Although multiple studies have found that African Americans commonly experience racial discrimination, available studies have yet to examine how perceived racism might be related to suicide vulnerability in African American youth. The purpose of this study was to examine a framework for how perceived racial discrimination contributes to symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as subsequent suicide ideation and morbid ideation. Data were obtained from 722 African American youth at mean age 10.56 years (SD = 0.64); a second wave of data was obtained 2 years later. Results revealed both a direct effect and mediated effects of perceived racism on later suicide and morbid ideation. For boys and girls, the effect of perceived racism was mediated by symptoms of depression. However, the association was mediated by anxiety for girls, but not for boys in the current sample. Implications for future research and interventions are discussed.     

Parental Monitoring and Adolescent Risk Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms and Gender

Parental monitoring can reduce adolescents’ engagement in risky behaviors; however, adolescents’ internalizing symptoms may alter the effectiveness of parental monitoring. The current study examines independent and interactive effects of maternal and paternal monitoring, adolescent’s internalizing symptoms, and adolescent gender on sexual behaviors and substance use with data from 659 of the 15-year-olds enrolled in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Results suggest girls who experienced less maternal monitoring and more internalizing symptoms—both independently and interactively—engaged in more risky sexual behaviors. Greater substance use was associated with less maternal and paternal monitoring for girls and boys, more internalizing symptoms for girls, and interactively with less maternal and paternal monitoring depending on girls’ levels of internalizing symptoms. The current study highlights the unique influences of mothers’ and fathers’ monitoring efforts on adolescent risky behavior based on the adolescent’s level of internalizing symptoms.     

Adolescent Self-Reports of Social Anxiety: Can They Disagree with Objective Psychophysiological Measures and Still Be Valid?

We examined self-reported and parent-reported adolescent social anxiety symptoms and objective baseline measures of psychophysiological flexibility in 62 families. Measures completed by 31 adolescents referred for a clinical screening evaluation for social anxiety were compared to an age- and gender-matched community control sample of 31 adolescents (total sample: age range 14 to 17?years; 22 boys and 40 girls; M?=?15.32?years; SD?=?1.1). Clinic referred adolescents reported significantly fewer social anxiety symptoms than parents reported about adolescents. Further, for all adolescents, self-reported social anxiety symptoms exhibited low correspondence with objective psychophysiological measures. Yet, both measures uniquely discriminated between adolescents on whether they were clinic referred for a social anxiety screening. Further, adolescent self-reported social anxiety symptoms exhibited high levels of internal consistency and convergent validity. Findings indicate that researchers and practitioners should refrain from using disagreements between adolescent self-reports and other measures (e.g., parent report, objective measures) as indicators of the veracity of adolescent self-reports.     

Prospective association of parental and child internalizing symptoms: Mediation of parenting practices and irritability

Maternal internalizing symptoms have been linked with child internalizing symptoms, but paternal internalizing difficulties have received little attention. Our aims were to prospectively analyse the simultaneous effect of maternal and paternal internalizing symptoms on child internalizing difficulties, examining gender differences, and to verify the mediating effect of parenting practices and child irritability. The sample included 470 families assessed at child ages 3, 6, 8, and 11. Multi-group structural equation modelling was performed with Mplus8.2. Complete equivalence was found between boys and girls for all paths. Maternal internalizing symptoms at age 3 had an indirect effect on child internalizing symptoms at age 11, via irritability at age 8. Paternal internalizing symptoms at age 3 were not associated with any of the variables under study. Maternal internalizing symptoms and child irritability are targets for intervention in order to prevent child internalizing difficulties.     

青少年早期内化问题的稳定性及其与母亲教养的关系

通过对502名11岁城市青少年为期2年的追踪调查,考察了青少年早期内化问题发展的稳定性及母亲教养对1年后青少年内化问题的预测.结果发现:(1)青少年早期的内化问题具有较高的稳定性,与男青少年相比,女青少年保持较高的内化问题水平;(2)母亲控制惩罚教养可以正向预测1年后男青少年的内化问题,母亲温情引导可以负向预测女青少年的内化问题.青少年先前的内化问题对母亲教养与其1年后内化问题之间关系的调节作用存在性别差异:对于先前内化问题水平较高的男青少年而言,母亲较高的温情引导和控制惩罚教养正向预测其1年后的内化问题;对于先前内化问题水平较高的女青少年而言,母亲较多的温情引导则负向预测其1年后的内化问题.