The Longitudinal Interplay Between Social Network and Psychopathology in Multi-Problem Young Adult Men; Separating Within-and Between-Person Effects

Abstract

Young adulthood is characterized by many life changes. Especially for young men with problems across different life domains (i.e., multi-problem), these changes may entail obstacles. Incidences of psychopathology increase during young adulthood and at the same time important shifts in social networks – such as changing relations with peers and parents, isolation, or deviant peer affiliation – take place. The present study examined the longitudinal interplay between psychopathology and social network characteristics over the course of 1 year in multi-problem young adults, at both between-person and within-person level. A sample of 696 multi-problem young adult men (age 18–27) participated in this three wave study. We used traditional cross-lagged panel models (CLPM) to examine how social network characteristics and psychopathology are related at the between-person level, and random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM) to examine within-person links. Between-person associations between internalizing problems and social networks were bidirectional, and externalizing problems were related to problematic social network characteristics, but not vice versa. At the within-person level, no such cross-lagged paths were found. Overall, results indicated that in multi-problem young adults, social network characteristics and psychopathology are related. However, looking at within-person processes this relation is not reciprocal.

Students’ emotion regulation and school-related well-being: Longitudinal models juxtaposing between- and within-person perspectives.

“…In addition, appropriate practical suggestions cannot be derived solely based on the CLPM (e.g., suggestions for designing interventions) as it does not tell us how constructs are related within an individual. For most relevant effects, causal mechanisms generating an influence of one construct on another construct occur within rather than between persons (Keijsers, 2016; Murayama et al, 2017; Schenk et al, 2021). The RI-CLPM extends the CLPM by examining whether the within-person temporary deviation from the person-average level in one specific construct influences change in the within-person temporary deviation from the person-average level in a different construct (Orth et al, 2021).…”