Friends or foes? Peer influences on anxiety among children and adolescents

Greca, La; Annette, M

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511663239.008

Cited by 29 publications

(37 citation statements)

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“…Findings should, therefore, be replicated using information from multiple informants although these too may have limitations. That is, early adolescents may be the best informants of social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and maternal psychological control because of the internal, personal, and covert nature of these constructs (La Greca 2001;Barber 2002). Second, only two waves of data were collected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Temporal Associations between Perceived Maternal Psychological Control and Early Adolescent Internalizing Problems

Loukas

2009

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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The present study examined a) the associations between adolescent-reported maternal psychological control and self-reported internalizing problems one year later, while simultaneously examining the opposite direction of effects and b) the equivalence of these associations across gender. Participants were 479 10-to-14-year old adolescents (55% female) participating in two waves of a study. Results from multi-group, cross-lagged panel analyses indicated that although early adolescents' depressive symptoms and social anxiety predicted change in perceived maternal psychological control one year later, perceived maternal psychological control did not predict change in early adolescents' internalizing problems. Elevated levels of depressive symptoms were associated with increased levels of perceived maternal psychological control one year later, whereas elevated levels of social anxiety were associated with decreased levels. Aforementioned findings were consistent across boys' and girls' data. Study findings extend limited research on adolescent effects, demonstrating that early adolescents' internalizing problems play a role in perceived maternal psychological control.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Temporal Associations between Perceived Maternal Psychological Control and Early Adolescent Internalizing Problems

Loukas

2009

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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“…Because of the increasing amount of time spent with peers and the importance of close interpersonal relationships during early adolescence, social stress becomes particularly salient as a threat to psychological well-being at this time (La Greca 2001). Moreover, levels of social stress, specifically in peer relationships, tend to increase from preadolescence to adolescence for both boys and girls; however, gender differences in levels of social stress typically begin to emerge during early adolescence with girls reporting higher levels of stress, suggesting that adolescence may represent a period of particular vulnerability for girls (Brooks-Gunn 1991;Ge et al 2001).…”

Section: Social Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coping with Social Stress: Implications for Psychopathology in Young Adolescent Girls

Sontag

Graber

Brooks‐Gunn

et al. 2008

J Abnorm Child Psychol

103

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This study investigated the impact of social stress on symptoms of psychopathology at the entry into adolescence (111 girls, Mage=11.84, SD=0.77). We examined whether peer stress and pubertal timing were associated with internalizing distress and aggression, and whether responses to stress and cortisol reactivity mediated or moderated these associations. Cortisol samples were collected from saliva samples during in-home visits, and the YSR was used to assess psychopathology. Interestingly, pubertal timing demonstrated a trend association with cortisol. Responses to stress mediated the association between social stress and symptoms of internalizing distress and aggression. Specifically, early maturers and girls with higher levels of peer stress exhibited more problematic responses to stress, in turn demonstrating higher levels of internalizing distress and aggression. Significant moderation effects also emerged. For example, early maturers who experienced higher levels of emotional/cognitive numbing in response to peer stress were at greater risk for aggression. Findings identify coping strategies that may be used in evidence-based programming to help girls transition more successfully into adolescence will be discussed. KeywordsPeer stress; Coping; Pubertal timing; Internalizing; Aggression Adolescence represents a period for developing skills-interpersonal as well as personal. However, as consistent with the diathesis-stress model, some individuals enter adolescence with prior vulnerabilities (poorer problem solving skills, less developed emotion regulation skills, difficulty with emotional expression, greater physiological reactivity) making it more challenging to adapt effectively to the quickly changing landscape of early adolescence (Igram and Luxton 2005). As time spent with peers increases during the transition into adolescence, so does the likelihood of experiencing negative peer interactions, such as victimization by peers (via both overt and relational aggression), interpersonal problems © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008 Correspondence to: Lisa M. Sontag, lsontag@ufl.edu. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript with a close friend, and being teased or hassled by one's peers. Based on prior vulnerabilities and prior experiences, adolescents often respond to such negative peer events with a range of reactions-anger, sadness, aggression, emotional suppression, etc. In turn, how an adolescent adapts to these experiences is often associated with the expression of emotional and behavioral problems (Compas et al. 2001).Much of the research examining how children and adolescents manage and adapt to stressful experiences demonstrates that coping strategies or responses to stress, more broadly, may buffer the effects of stressful experiences, ultimately reducing the likelihood of subsequent psychosocial problems (Jaser et al. 2005;Wadsworth et al. 2005). However, the stress and coping literature also suggests that the stressful situation...

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“…La Greca and Stone (1993) conceptualized three aspects of social anxiety symptoms: fear of negative evaluation by others, social avoidance and distress in new situations, and generalized social avoidance and distress. Fear of negative evaluation refers to children's subjective worries regarding negative evaluation from peers, while the other two aspects make a distinction between children's feelings of social avoidance and distress in new situations and those that are more generally experienced (La Greca & Stone, 1993;La Greca, 2001). Although the average age of onset for social anxiety diagnosis is early to mid-adolescence, studies show that children as young as 8 years are diagnosed with social anxiety and that subclinical levels of social anxiety are quite common among children aged 5 to 18 years (Beidel & Turner, 1998;Bell-Dolan, Last, & Strauss, 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mother–child attachment and social anxiety symptoms in middle childhood

Brumariu

Kerns

2008

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

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Literature suggests that parent-child attachment and anxiety symptoms are related. One purpose of the present study was to assess whether attachment patterns relate differentially to social anxiety aspects (fear of negative evaluation, social anxiety and distress in new situations, and generalized anxiety and distress). The second purpose was to investigate these links both longitudinally and concurrently in middle childhood. Children in grades 3 and 5 (N = 74) completed measures of secure, ambivalent, and avoidant attachments with mothers and a measure of social anxiety symptoms in grade 5. Longitudinal analyses showed that ambivalent attachment was most consistently related to social anxiety. Concurrent measures of attachment and social anxiety showed that lower attachment security and higher ambivalent attachment were most consistently related to higher social anxiety. Concurrent attachment predicted variance in social anxiety after controlling for earlier attachment. Findings suggest that anxiety interventions might target attachment.

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Friends or foes? Peer influences on anxiety among children and adolescents

Cited by 29 publications

References 0 publications

Examining Temporal Associations between Perceived Maternal Psychological Control and Early Adolescent Internalizing Problems

Examining Temporal Associations between Perceived Maternal Psychological Control and Early Adolescent Internalizing Problems

Coping with Social Stress: Implications for Psychopathology in Young Adolescent Girls

Mother–child attachment and social anxiety symptoms in middle childhood

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