Friendship Experiences and Anxiety Among Children: A Genetically Informed Study

Abstract

This study examined (a) whether, in line with a gene-environment correlation (rGE), a genetic disposition for anxiety puts children at risk of having anxious friends or having no reciprocal friends; (b) to what extent these friendship experiences are related to anxiety symptoms, when controlling for sex and genetic disposition for this trait; and (c) the additive and interactive predictive links of the reciprocal best friend's anxiety symptoms and of friendship quality with children's anxiety symptoms. Using a genetically informed design based on 521 monozygotic and ic twins (264 girls; 87% of European descent) assessed in Grade 4 (M age = 10.04 years, SD = .26), anxiety symptoms and perceived friendship quality were measured with self-report questionnaires. Results indicated that, in line with rGE, children with a strong genetic disposition for anxiety were more likely to have anxious friends than nonanxious friends. Moreover, controlling for their genetic risk for anxiety, children with anxious friends showed higher levels of anxiety symptoms than children with nonanxious friends but did not differ from those without reciprocal friends. Additional analyses suggested a possible contagion of anxiety symptoms between reciprocal best friends when perceived negative features of friendship were high. These results underline the importance of teaching strategies such as problem solving that enhance friendship quality to limit the potential social contagion of anxiety symptoms.

Contagion of Anxiety Symptoms Among Adolescent Siblings: A Twin Study

“…Notably, the present results suggest that the social contagion of anxiety symptoms between siblings equally applied to both girls and boys, which is in line with results from studies examining the social contagion of anxiety between friends (Schwartz‐Mette & Rose, ; Serra Poirier et al., ; Van Zalk et al., ).…”

“…Moreover, studies by Serra Poirier et al. () and by Van Zalk, Van Zalk, Kerr, and Stattin () found evidence of social contagion of anxiety in both boys and girls.…”

“…To our knowledge, no study has focused specifically on the contagion of internalizing problems among siblings. However, there is empirical evidence for the emotional contagion of anxiogenic or depressogenic thoughts and feelings between friends (Prinstein, ; Schwartz‐Mette & Rose, ; Serra Poirier et al., ). Given the characteristics of sibling relationships, including closeness and intimacy shared between brothers and sisters, contagion of internalizing problems should also be evident.…”

“…However, no study so far has examined a possible social contagion of internalizing problems between siblings or the potential moderating role of relationship quality in this context. Two studies that examined this question within friendships found social contagion between friends to be stronger in the context of lower friendship quality (Prinstein, 2007;Serra Poirier et al, 2015). Whereas Prinstein (2007) found this association only among teenage boys (i.e., stronger contagion of depressive symptoms when the positive aspects of the relationship quality were perceived as low), Serra Poirier et al (2015) found this association to be true for both male and female children (i.e., stronger contagion of anxiety symptoms when the negative aspects of the relationship quality were perceived as high).…”

“…Raising awareness of a possible sibling contagion of anxiety may be useful for preventing the development of anxiety symptoms in youth. Serra Poirier et al, 2015). Given the character-Funding for this study was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds qu eb ecois de la recherche sur la soci et e et la culture.…”