Adolescent Friendship Research Articles

Quality over quantity: A transactional model of social withdrawal and friendship development in late adolescence.

The aim of this study was to test a longitudinal, transactional model that describes how social withdrawal and friendship development are interrelated in late adolescence, and to investigate if post‐secondary transitions are catalysts of change for highly withdrawn adolescents’ friendships. Unilateral friendship data of 1,019 adolescents (61.3% female, 91% Dutch‐origin) from the Tracking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS) cohort were collected five times from ages 17 to 18 years. Social withdrawal was assessed at 16 and 19 years. The transactional model was tested within a Structural Equation Modeling framework, with intercepts and slopes of friendship quantity, quality, and stability as mediators and residential transitions, education transitions, and sex as moderators. The results confirmed the presence of a transactional relation between withdrawal and friendship quality. Whereas higher age 16 withdrawal predicted having fewer, lower‐quality, and less‐stable friendships, only having lower‐quality friendships, in turn, predicted higher age 19 withdrawal, especially in girls. Residential transitions were catalysts of change for highly withdrawn youth's number of friends: higher withdrawal predicted a moderate increase in number of friends for adolescents who relocated, and no change for those who made an educational transition or did not transition. Taken together, these results indicate that the quality of friendships—over and above number of friends and the stability of those friendships—is particularly important for entrenching or diminishing withdrawal in late adolescence, and that relocating provides an opportunity for withdrawn late adolescents to expand their friendship networks.

Positive wellbeing and resilience following adolescent victimisation: An exploration into protective factors across development.

BackgroundNot all victims of bullying go on to develop problems with their mental health. To understand factors that may confer resilience, many have explored the moderating role of protective factors in relation to mental illness. No study to date, however, has considered moderators of adult wellbeing following victimisation. We explore 14 protective factors and test whether these promote good adult wellbeing in addition to prevent mental illness following victimisation. In doing so, we aimed to understand how positive mental health and resilience can be promoted.MethodsData were derived from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Participants were assessed for wellbeing and depressive symptoms at age 23, as well as victimisation in adolescence, and protective factors across development. Protective factors were categorised into individual‐, family‐ and peer‐level, and included factors like social skills, perceived school competence, and relationships with family and peers. The moderating role of the protective factors were examined using interactive regression models.ResultsPerceived scholastic competence was the only factor that mitigated some of the negative effects of victimisation. Individuals with higher perceptions of scholastic competence had higher wellbeing in adulthood than victims with lower perceptions of competence. No protective factors positively moderated life satisfaction or the risk of depressive symptoms; although findings suggest that friendships in late adolescence may be protective for individuals exposed to less frequent victimisation.ConclusionsOur study is the first to explore a wide range of protective factors in predicting adult wellbeing following victimisation. We identify factors involved specifically in supporting wellbeing but not in reducing the risk of depression. Findings suggest that interventions aimed at increasing perceptions of scholastic competence in childhood may help to support more positive wellbeing in adulthood.

The Implementation of Fardiyah Da'wah in Peer Counseling to Prevent Free Sex

This paper explains how to analyze teenagers’ life using a case study in Adolescent Friendly Health Services (AFHS) at Public Health (Puskesmas) Blora. The research data were obtained through observation, interviews with the client, peer counseling, doctor, and paramedics in Puskesmas. The result found some forms of teenager’s free sex in Adolescent Friendly Health Services (AFHS) at Puskesmas Blora. Those actions were holding hands, kissing hands, kissing lips, making out, and doing premarital sex. The prevention effort with the peer counseling had been conducted in two ways of methods that are personal approach with the client and couching with the material given to them. The analysis showed that the implementation of fardiyah da'wah in peer counseling was in line with stages of fardiyah da’wah proposed by Abdul Wahid, namely building good relationships with mad’u and giving motivation to mad’u.

Attached or not attached: Does different learning styles exist among students with or without sense of belonging amidst covid-19?

This study was about peer attachment and learning styles being moderated by a sense of belonging among students during the COVID-19 era. Using an analytical cross-sectional survey design, 284 final-year undergraduates were selected through stratified-proportionate and convenient sampling procedures. Data was gathered from the respondents using Learning Preference Scale (Owens & Straton, 1980), Adolescent Friendship Attachment Scale (Wilkinson, 2008) and Psychological Sense of School Membership (Goodenow, 1993). The data was analysed using descriptive (Frequencies and Percentages) and inferential statistics (Multivariate Multiple Regression, Simple Moderation with Hayes Process Macro and Multivariate Analysis of Variance).The study revealed that most students engaged in less peer attachment, felt less sense of belonging while secure attachment predicted the individual learning style of students. Furthermore, secure attachment and anxious attachments predicted the cooperative learning style of students while anxious attachment and avoidant attachment predicted the competitive learning style of students. Further, a sense of belonging moderated not peer attachment and learning styles of students, while no significant differences were found between male and female students in terms of peer attachment, learning styles, and sense of belonging. Therefore, it was recommended that students should practice individual learning styles most often but could collaborate with a few colleagues in some academic situations during this period of COVID-19. This is to help foster closeness and belongingness among the students.

Long‐Term Effects of Institutional Care and Enhanced Attachment Relationships on Close Adolescent Friendships

This study examined whether early institutional rearing and attachment security influence the quality and quantity of friendships at age 16 in 138 participants, including children abandoned to institutions in Bucharest, Romania, who were randomized to care as usual (n=45, 26 female), or foster care (n=47, 25 female), and a never-institutionalized group (n=46, 18 female). Adolescents in the foster care group with secure attachment to their foster mothers at 42months were comparable to never-institutionalized adolescents in having more friends and more positive behaviors with their friend during dyadic interactions, compared to the foster care group with insecure attachment and care as usual group. Interventions targeting early child-caregiver attachment relationships may help foster the ability to build positive friendships in adolescence.

Recovery from anorexia nervosa: the influence of women's sociocultural milieux.

Young women living in industrialised westernised societies have a higher prevalence of anorexia nervosa, partly due to a cultural emphasis on thinness as a beauty ideal. Sociocultural milieux might promote recovery from anorexia nervosa amongst young women. The current article is a commentary about the social influences on recovery from anorexia nervosa - based on social anthropology, narratives of people with lived experience, and clinical studies. Anorexia nervosa increases social withdrawal, and recovery leads to re-engagement with meaningful relationships. Recovery also empowers women as 'cultural critics' who challenge assumptions about the thinness beauty ideal and gender roles. The gradual process of full or partial recovery often occurs during emerging adulthood (aged 20-29). In this life stage, adolescent friendship groups are dissolving as women move from education to work, reducing the danger of weight-based teasing by peers, which is an environmental risk factor for disordered eating. Women recovering from anorexia nervosa may connect with those aspirations of peers and mentors that eschew a focus on weight and shape, but relate to the life-stage tasks of starting careers, beginning new friendships, selecting life partners and family formation - that is, a broader role in larger relationship networks.

Effects of Friendship among Same-Sex Attracted Youth on Sexual Minority Identity Development in Young Adulthood

ABSTRACT Using data from Waves 1 and 3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study investigated the interactive impact of adolescent friendship network characteristics and same-sex attraction (SSA) on the development of sexual minority (SM) identity in young adulthood. Results indicate that SSA youth who identified a best friend that also identified them as their best friend were 5.3 times more likely to identify as a SM compared to those who did not experience reciprocity. For each additional classmate who listed them as a friend, SSA youth were 1.2 times more likely to identify as a SM. Increased centrality in friendship network increased the likelihood that SSA youth would identify as a SM by 1.8 times. Sex-stratified results reveal that particular network characteristics impact boys and girls differently. These findings point to the importance of further investigating relationships between friendship characteristics and identity formation among adolescents.

Friendship and Consumption Networks in Adolescents and Their Relationship to Stress and Cannabis Use Intention.

Background: Cannabis is an illegal psychoactive substance that’s use is widespread among adolescents. During adolescence, many changes can cause stress. In this phase, the group of friends becomes increasingly important, being a situation of vulnerability for the beginning of cannabis use, either as an escape mechanism or due to peer’s influence. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the structure of the consumption and friendship network, the intention to use cannabis, and the stress in a secondary school class. Methods: An online platform with validated self-reported questionnaires were used for data collection. Results: The sample consisted of adolescents (n = 20) aged 14–16 from a third-year class of compulsory secondary education in Ponferrada (León, Spain). Significant differences were obtained concerning consumption intention and the different network metrics in both the friendship and consumption networks. Subsequently, the representation of these networks was carried out. Conclusions: Social Network Analysis is a very useful tool that provides a picture of the context in which adolescents are located. In the consumption network, there are central actors who have not yet consumed cannabis; this is a crucial moment to implement prevention strategies.

Depressive Symptoms and Cigarette Smoking in Adolescents and Young Adults: Mediating Role of Friends Smoking.

We examined the mediating role of friends smoking in the association between depressive symptoms and daily/weekly cigarette smoking from adolescence into adulthood. Data were drawn from the Nicotine Dependence In Teens study (NDIT, Canada) and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, UK) studies. Three age groups were investigated in NDIT: age 13-14 (n = 1189), 15-16 (n = 1107), and 17-18 (n = 1075), and one in ALSPAC (n = 4482, age 18-21). Multivariable mediation models decomposed the total effect (TE) of depressive symptoms on smoking into a natural direct effect (NDE) and natural indirect effect (NIE) through friends smoking. The odds ratios (ORs) for the TE were relatively constant over time with estimates ranging from 1.12 to 1.35. Friends smoking mediated the association between depressive symptoms and smoking in the two youngest samples (OR [95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09 [1.01,1.17] in 13- to 14-year-olds; 1.10 [1.03,1.18] in 15- to 16-year-olds). In the two older samples, NDE of depressive symptoms was close to the TE, suggestive that mediation was absent or too small to detect. Friends smoking mediates the association between depressive symptoms and daily/weekly cigarette smoking in young adolescents. If young adolescents use cigarettes to self-medicate depressive symptoms, then interventions targeting smoking that ignore depressive symptoms may be ineffective. Our results also underscore the importance of the influence of friends in younger adolescents, suggestive that preventive intervention should target the social environment, including social relationships.

What is(n’t) a friend? Dimensions of the friendship concept among adolescents

Much research in network analysis of adolescent friendships assumes that friendships represent liking and social interaction, friendships are directed, and friendships are equivalent to one another. This study investigates the meaning of friendship for eight diverse cohorts of sixth graders. Analysis of focus group and survey data suggests that these adolescents construe friendship as a multidimensional role relation composed primarily of relational norms, expectations for mutual behavior. Their friendship definitions may also include mutual liking and interaction, and other structural expectations such as reciprocity, homophily, and transitivity. Lastly, boys and girls weight these dimensions differently in defining friendship.

The association between perceived social support in adolescence and positive mental health outcomes in early adulthood: a prospective cohort study.

The link between perceived social support and mental health has received much attention from numerous scientific fields in recent years. Most studies, however, have examined associations only over relatively short follow-up periods using global measures of perceived social support and dichotomous negative indicators of mental health. We investigated the long-term association between perceived social support from friends, parents and teachers and multiple positive hedonic and eudemonic indicators of mental health, including hope, meaningfulness and subjective well-being. This study used questionnaire data from 2004, 2007 and 2010 from the West Jutland Birth Cohort study with linked register data. The study population consisted of 3681 adolescents born in 1989. Multiple linear and ordered logistic regression were used to analyse the association between perceived social support at age 14/15 years and mental health indicators at age 20/21 years while controlling for possible confounders, including the Big Five personality traits and baseline symptoms of depression. The results show that perceived social support from friends in adolescence was positively associated with all indicators of mental health in early adulthood. Furthermore, perceived paternal social support was positively associated with meaningfulness and subjective well-being, while perceived social support from teachers was positively associated with meaningfulness. Overall, the results from this study indicate that perceived social support in adolescence, particularly support from friends, could promote positive mental health outcomes in early adulthood.

Barriers and opportunities to using health information in policy implementation: The case of adolescent and youth friendly health services in the Western Cape.

BackgroundThe production, use and exchange of health information is an essential part of the health services, as it is used to inform daily decision-making and to develop new policies, guidelines and programmes. However, there is little insight into how health care workers (HCWs) get access to and use health information when implementing new health programmes.AimThis study explored the multifaceted role of health information within policy implementation processes and aimed to understand the complexities experienced by HCWs who need to develop adolescent health profiles (AHPs), a criterion of implementing a larger Adolescent and Youth Friendly Services Programme (AYFSP).SettingThis case study was undertaken in Gugulethu, a peri-urban, low-income neighbourhood in Cape Town, South Africa.MethodsData were collected through ethnographic qualitative methods, including participant observation, interviews and workshops, and 15 participants were enrolled for this purpose.ResultsFindings showed that HCWs experienced different barriers when accessing information to develop the AHPs, including a lack of access to databases, a lack of support and inadequate guidelines. Nevertheless, HCWs were resourceful in using informal information and building strategic relationships to navigate and gain access to the necessary data to develop AHPs.ConclusionThis case study provided insights into the practical difficulties and innovative strategies which arise when HCWs attempt to access and use health information within a real-life health programme. Findings highlighted the need for more training, support and guidance for HCWs to improve the meaningful use of health information during policy implementation processes and to strengthen health services in South African primary care clinics.

A multi-contextual examination of non-school friendships and their impact on adolescent deviance and alcohol use.

Despite decades of research on adolescent friendships, little is known about adolescents who are more likely to form ties outside of school. We examine multiple social and ecological contexts including parents, the school, social networks, and the neighborhood to understand the origins and health significance of out of school ties using survey data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 81,674). Findings indicate that out of school (more than in-school) friendships drive adolescent deviance and alcohol use, and youth with such friends tend to be involved in school activities and are central among their peer group. This suggests that intervention efforts aimed at reducing deviance and underage drinking may benefit from engaging youth with spanning social ties.

A Study of Quality and Proficiency of the Service Providers in Delivering the Adolescent and Youth Friendly Services under the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram Programme in Madhya Pradesh

Despite existing frameworks for the improvement of adolescent reproductive health, there is a lack in provision of the Adolescent Friendly Health Services (AFHS). The primary objective of this study was to assess the quality and proficiency of service providers to deliver Adolescent Friendly Health Services (AFHS) in central India. Data was gathered by visiting 30 secondary and tertiary level health facilities to assess their infrastructure and preparedness for providing AFHS using a pre-designed questionnaire based on WHO guidelines for assessing quality. Descriptive analysis was done using SPSS v21 and Microsoft Excel. Quality of AFHS services was found to be poor in non- RKSK facilities. However the knowledge level, training status and counseling skills of the service provider was found to be highly substandard in both RKSK and Non-RKSK facilities. The RKSK program has not been properly implemented and has failed to make an impact where it was required.

More than Risk? Longitudinal Changes in Friendship Support with Serious Adolescent Offenders.

Research on the friendships of adolescents who offend has overwhelmingly focused on delinquency, despite developmental evidence that friendships are a large source of support for youth. In order to understand between- and within-individual differences in friendship support over time with adolescents who offend, the present study used multi-level modeling techniques on data from male youth in the Pathways to Desistance study. Participants were a racially and ethnically diverse (43% Black, 35% Hispanic, and 21% White) group of 1040 male youth adjudicated or convicted of serious offenses between age 14 and 18. Youth reported high levels of support, which modestly declined over time, and they reported less support from delinquent peers. Black and Hispanic youth reported higher levels of friendship support than White youth, but the trajectory of support did not statistically differ by race or ethnicity. The friendships of youth who commit serious offenses are nuanced relationships that should not be viewed dichotomously as delinquent or supportive.

Factors Influencing Psychological Independence in Adolescents and Their Relationship to Coaching-based Support from Significant Others.

An increasing number of adolescents are experiencing social maladjustment. This development may be due to serious conflicts regarding psychological independence. This study aimed to elucidate factors that influence psychological independence in adolescents and to clarify the relationship among coaching-based support from significant others, adolescent self-esteem, and adolescent psychological independence, in order to help prevent and treat social maladjustment in adolescents. A total of 1814 students in all years at 2 universities and 1 junior college in A Prefecture, Japan, completed an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire asked about the participants' attributes, support relationships, psychological independence, and self-esteem. Coaching-based support was assessed by the Accelerate your Coaching Effectiveness scale; psychological independence by the Psychological Jiritsu Scale; and self-esteem by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Gender, grade, major, current living situation were found to influence psychological independence of adolescents. The most significant others who had the most influence on psychological independence were mothers, fathers, and friends for male adolescents, and mothers, friends, and fathers for female adolescents, in that order. In female, coaching-based support from significant others increased their self-esteem and promoted all the sub-scales of psychological independence. In male, coaching-based support boosted their self-esteem and promoted the following sub-scales; "future orientation", "appropriate human relations", "value judgment and execution", "responsibility", and "social perspective", except for "self-control". We believe that coaching-based support from significant others can effectively help adolescents build their self-esteem and can promote their psychological independence.

Social support from family and friends for physical activity in adolescence: analysis with structural equation modeling.

Social support is an important predictor for the maintenance of physical activity in adolescence. Thus, the social-ecological approach values the impact of individuals or groups interaction with available resources in the social environment for adopting an active lifestyle. This study analyzes social support from family and friends for adolescents to practice physical activity. Guided by the Social-Ecological Theory, an observational cross-sectional structural equations modeling was applied to 2,710 Brazilians adolescents aged from 14 to 18 years. We identified that the greater the social support from friends (β = 0.30; RMSEA = 0.065; CFI = 0.953; TLI = 0.922; SRMR = 0.048) and family, the greater the adolescents physical activity (β = 0.27; RMSEA = 0.015; CFI = 0.997; TLI = 0.995; SRMR = 0.013). However, support from both sources indicated no adequate adjustment values in the same study model. Our findings suggest that adolescents who perceive social support from family members or friends practice more physical activity, confirming that social support is important for physical activity promotion.

Weight Status and BMI-Related Traits in Adolescent Friendship Groups and Role of Sociodemographic Factors: The European IDEFICS/I.Family Cohort

Background: During adolescence, health behaviors and weight status are increasingly influenced by friendship and peer networks. This paper examines resemblances in weight-related characteristics and how they differ by sociodemographic factors. Methods: Over 3,000 friendships were reported by 1,603 adolescents, aged 11–16 years, who participated in the school-based I.Family study in 6 European countries. Each “source child” named 1–10 friends for whom standardized weight-related traits were available in the same survey. The mean value of the friends’ traits weighted by time spent together was calculated, and related to the source child’s trait. Country, age and sex of the source child, parental education, and immigrant background were considered for confounding and moderation. Results: Source children’s z-scores of body fat percent and BMI were positively associated with their friends’ characteristics, in particular if they had highly educated parents. Positive associations were also found regarding the frequency of fast-food consumption, impulsivity, screen time, preference for sugar-sweetened foods, and hours spent in sports clubs, in increasing order of effect size. Additionally, correlations were observed between friends’ cognitive and school functioning and being bullied. No associations were seen for a preference for high-fat foods, weight concerns, and health-related quality of life. Finally, parental education and immigrant background were associated between friends in all countries except Sweden, where no associations were observed. Conclusion: Adolescent friends shared a number of weight-related characteristics. For weight measures per se, positive associations with friends’ characteristics were only observed in adolescents with high parental education. Associations regarding energy-balance behaviors and indicators of school-related well-being did not differ by parental education. Parental education and immigrant background correlated positively in friends in most countries showing that social aggregation is already occurring in adolescence. The wide spectrum of friendship associations in weight-related traits and behaviors suggests that health promotion initiatives in adolescents should be directed towards peer groups in both school-related and leisure-time environments. ISRCTN Registry: Pan-European IDEFICS/I.Family children cohort (ID ISRCTN62310987; https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN62310987).

CORRELATION BETWEEN FORGIVENESS AND ADOLESCENCE FRIENDSHIP INTIMACY MODERATED BY GENDER

Friendship intimacy is one of the critical developing aspects of adolescence. Previous research shows that forgiveness has a vital role in the interpersonal relationship. This research aims to find a correlation between forgiveness and adolescent friendship intimacy based on gender. Research’s participant consists of 250 teenagers (125 male and 125 female, M = 16.2, SD = .7, with 15-18 years old age range) in a Pekanbaru school. The sample was collected through convenience sampling. This study used the Friendship Intimacy Scale with α = .82 and Forgiveness Scale, with α = .94. Based on data analysis, a product-moment correlation shows a positive correlation between forgiveness and adolescence friendship intimacy (r = .273, p < .01), which means the higher the level of individual forgiveness is, the higher the friendship intimacy become. The moderator variable analysis shows that gender becomes a relationship moderator variable between forgiveness and adolescence friendship intimacy (p < .01), which means that correlation between forgiveness and friendship intimacy is more substantial on males than females.

Explanatory Item Response Models for Dyadic Data from Multiple Groups

Like other quantitative social scientists, network researchers benefit from pooling information from multiple observed variables to infer underlying (latent) attributes or social processes. Appropriate network data for this task is increasingly available. The inherent dependencies in relational data, however, pose unique challenges. This is especially true for the ascendant tasks of cross-network comparisons and multilevel network analysis. The author draws on item response theory and multilevel (mixed effects) modeling to propose a methodological approach that accounts for these dependencies and allows the analyst to model variation of latent dyadic traits across relations, actors, and groups precisely and parsimoniously. Examples demonstrate the approach’s utility for three important research areas: tie strength in adolescent friendships, group differences in how discussing personal problems relates to tie strength, and the analysis of multiple relations.