Abstract
This study examined whether individuals with different personality types (i.e., overcontrollers, undercontrollers, resilients) had different friendship quality development throughout adolescence. It also investigated whether personality types were indirectly related to romantic relationship quality in young adulthood, via friendship quality development in adolescence. The study employed six waves of longitudinal questionnaire data from Dutch youths who had a romantic relationship when they were young adults. Two age cohorts were followed, from 12 to 21 years and from 16 to 25 years, respectively. Findings showed that resilients reported higher mean levels of friendship quality during adolescence (i.e., more support from, less negative interaction with and less dominance from their best friend) than both overcontrollers and undercontrollers. Through the mean levels of friendship quality throughout adolescence, resilients indirectly experienced higher romantic relationship quality during young adulthood than both overcontrollers and undercontrollers. Thus, results provide support for a developmental model in which adolescent friendship quality is a mechanism linking personality types with young adulthood romantic relationship quality.
Highlights
Friendships and romantic relationships are both important for psychosocial development in adolescence and young adulthood [1,2]
We proposed that there would be an indirect pathway, such that adolescent personality types were associated with differential development of friendship quality during adolescence, which in turn would be associated with romantic relationship quality
The Current Study Overall, this study aimed to test whether adolescent personality types were related to differential mean levels and developmental changes in friendship quality throughout adolescence and whether, through these differences in adolescents’ friendship quality, adolescent personality types would indirectly predict romantic relationship quality during young adulthood
Summary
Friendships and romantic relationships are both important for psychosocial development in adolescence and young adulthood [1,2]. Both of these social relationships are voluntary and reciprocal, and have important characteristics in common. Friendships and romantic relationships vary in the developmental significance over the life course, . Whereas friendships are often the first voluntary and reciprocal relationship in a persons’ life, and fulfill important developmental needs during childhood and adolescence, romantic relationships typically become more salient during emerging adulthood [3,4]. Friendships may serve as a learning ground for later romantic relationships [5,6]. Success in friendships is likely to affect the mastery of romantic relationships
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