Friendships and Family Support Reduce Subsequent Depressive Symptoms in At-Risk Adolescents

Harmelen, Anne‐Laura van; Gibson, Jenny; Clair, Michelle St; Owens, Matt; Brodbeck, Jeannette; Dunn, Valerie; Lewis, Gemma; Croudace, Tim; Jones, Peter B.; Kievit, Rogier A.; Goodyer, Ian

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0153715

Cited by 191 publications

(201 citation statements)

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“…The CFQ was developed from a semi‐structured interview based on ethological principles of social relationships and the developmental significance of friendships (Pellegrini & Bartini, 2000). The CFQ has demonstrated good reliability and validity (α = .70, further details available from first author), and has demonstrated ecological validity across two samples (van Harmelen et al., 2016, 2017). The CFA yields a single total score with higher scores indicating more positive perceptions of peer relationships (i.e.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Childhood family adversity is robustly associated with a range of deviant outcomes including subsequent conduct and emotional disorders, drug misuse, and mental illness (Dunn et al., 2011; Fergusson, Boden, & Horwood, 2008; van Harmelen et al., 2016). As higher prevalence of NSSI is associated with almost all mental illnesses (Dunn et al., 2011; Nock & Kessler, 2006), NSSI may not be a direct response or consequence of CFA itself but arise from subsequent mental illness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Poor family functioning mediates the link between childhood adversity and adolescent nonsuicidal self‐injury

Cassels

Harmelen

Neufeld

et al. 2018

Child Psychology Psychiatry

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BackgroundNon‐suicidal self‐injury (NSSI) is a common harmful behavior during adolescence. Exposure to childhood family adversity (CFA) is associated with subsequent emergence of NSSI during adolescence. However, the pathways through which this early environmental risk may operate are not clear.AimsWe tested four alternative hypotheses to explain the association between CFA and adolescent‐onset NSSI.MethodsA community sample of n = 933 fourteen year olds with no history of NSSI were followed up for 3 years.ResultsPoor family functioning at age 14 mediated the association between CFA before age 5 and subsequent onset of NSSI between 14 and 17 years.ConclusionsThe findings support the cumulative suboptimal environmental hazards (proximal family relationships as a mediator) hypothesis. Improving the family environment at age 14 may mitigate the effects of CFA on adolescent onset of NSSI.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poor family functioning mediates the link between childhood adversity and adolescent nonsuicidal self‐injury

Cassels

Harmelen

Neufeld

et al. 2018

Child Psychology Psychiatry

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“…Adolescent friendships and family support are important protective factors after early life stress (Rutter, 1985, van Harmelen et al 2016. Recently, we showed that adolescent family support reduces later depressive symptoms after differential levels of childhood family adversity, whereas adolescent friendship support reduced later depressive symptoms after childhood family adversity and/or peer victimisation (van Harmelen et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, individuals with comparable experiences may not appraise their experiences in the same way (Rutter, 1985(Rutter, , 2012. For instance, perceived levels of threat, rather than actual threat, determine later stress reactivity (van Wingen et al 2011). Therefore, including self-reported appraisal of childhood family experiences may contribute to a more valid and quantifiable measure of adolescent resilient functioning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, resilient functioning is not a personality trait that is constant over time Rutter, 2012;Cicchetti, 2013;Masten, 2015). Rather, resilient functioning waxes and wanes, possibly under the influence of protective factors such as family and friendship support (Rutter, 1985;Afifi & Macmillan, 2011;Cicchetti, 2013;van Harmelen et al 2016). Therefore, having low resilience at some time does not preclude the presence of future resilience or vice versa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adolescent friendships predict later resilient functioning across psychosocial domains in a healthy community cohort

Harmelen¹

2016

Preprint

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Background: Adolescence is a key time period for the emergence of psychosocial and mental healthdifficulties. To promote adolescent adaptive (‘resilient’) psychosocial functioning, appropriate conceptualizationand quantification of such functioning and its predictors is a crucial first step. Here,we quantify resilient functioning as the degree to which an individual functions better or worse thanexpected given their self-reported childhood family experiences, and relate this to adolescent familyand friendship support.Method: We used Principal Component and regression analyses to investigate the relationship betweenchildhood family experiences and psychosocial functioning (PSF: psychiatric symptomatology,personality traits and mental wellbeing) in healthy adolescents (the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network;N=2389; ages 14-24). Residuals from the relation between childhood family experiences andPSF reflect resilient functioning; the degree to which an individual is functioning better, or worse,than expected given their childhood family experiences. Next, we relate family and friendship supportwith resilient functioning both cross-sectionally and one year later.Results: Friendship and family support were positive predictors of immediate resilient psychosocialfunctioning, with friendship support being the strongest predictor. However, whereas friendshipsupport was a significant positive predictor of later resilient functioning, family support had a negativerelationship with later resilient psychosocial functioning.Conclusions: We show that friendship support, but not family support, is an important positive predictorof both immediate and later resilient psychosocial functioning in adolescence and early adulthood.Interventions that promote the skills needed to acquire and sustain adolescent friendshipsmay be crucial in increasing adolescent resilient psychosocial functioning.

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How biopsychosocial depressive risk shapes behavioral and neural responses to social evaluation in adolescence

et al. 2021

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Introduction Understanding the emotional responsivity style and neurocognitive profiles of depression‐related processes in at‐risk youth may be helpful in revealing those most likely to develop affective disorders. However, the multiplicity of biopsychosocial risk factors makes it difficult to disentangle unique and combined effects at a neurobiological level. Methods In a population‐derived sample of 56 older adolescents (aged 17–20), we adopted partial least squares regression and correlation models to explore the relationships between multivariate biopsychosocial risks for later depression, emotional response style, and fMRI activity, to rejecting and inclusive social feedback. Results Behaviorally, higher depressive risk was associated with both reduced negative affect following negative social feedback and reduced positive affect following positive social feedback. In response to both cues of rejection and inclusion, we observed a general neural pattern of increased cingulate, temporal, and striatal activity in the brain. Secondly, in response to rejection only, we observed a pattern of activity in ostensibly executive control‐ and emotion regulation‐related brain regions encompassing fronto‐parietal brain networks including the angular gyrus. Conclusion The results suggest that risk for depression is associated with a pervasive emotional insensitivity in the face of positive and negative social feedback.

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Friendships and Family Support Reduce Subsequent Depressive Symptoms in At-Risk Adolescents

Cited by 191 publications

References 79 publications

Poor family functioning mediates the link between childhood adversity and adolescent nonsuicidal self‐injury

Poor family functioning mediates the link between childhood adversity and adolescent nonsuicidal self‐injury

Adolescent friendships predict later resilient functioning across psychosocial domains in a healthy community cohort

How biopsychosocial depressive risk shapes behavioral and neural responses to social evaluation in adolescence

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