When Does Co-Rumination Facilitate Depression Contagion in Adolescent Friendships? Investigating Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Factors

Abstract

Objective: Research supports the notion that adolescents’ mental health is impacted by peers via contagion processes. A growing area of interest has been how co-rumination may influence depressive symptoms within friendships. The current study examined particular conditions under which co-rumination is especially likely to facilitate depression contagion. Method: Participants were adolescents (N =480, 49% female, M age = 14.6 years, 59.5% European American) paired in friendship dyads and assessed over 9 months. Characteristics of the adolescent (personal distress), of the friend (excessive reassurance seeking), and of the friendship (friendship quality) were considered. Results: Moderated mediation analyses indicated that co-rumination facilitated depression contagion only under conditions of adolescents’ high personal distress, friends’ high excessive reassurance seeking, and high positive friendship quality. Conclusions: This research underscores the importance of attending to how and under what conditions depression contagion occurs within friendships in order to support adolescents’ positive social and emotional development.

Factors Affecting Social Exclusion, Friendship Quality, Social Competence and Emotion Management Skills and the Effect of Problem Behaviors on Related Characteristics in Adolescents

“…The findings on depressive affect, feeling unhappy and hopeless, the intimacy dimension and the positive, enhancing effect of caring dimensions explaining social exclusion by friends support other findings and related literature (Schwartz-Mette, Smith, 2018;Lorant, Tranmer, 2019). Mobbing in the business world is seen as peer bullying in peer relationships and bullying in love affairs or personal relationships (Siyez, M., Aysan, 2007;Vanderbilt, Augustyn, 2010).…”

“…The relevant literature shows that all types of abuse and neglect can increase the tendency to perform such behaviors and that young people may be affected by other individuals showing similar behaviors to solve their problems (Hallab, Covic, 2010;Adrian, Zeman, Erdley, 2011;Peh, Shahwan, Fauziana, Mahesh, Sambasivam, Zhang,..., Subramaniam, 2017). Therefore, the security dimension draws attention to the reductive effect of knowing the existence of friends who can direct the youth to healthy behaviors and provide the health support they need (Barry,Lui, Lee-Rowland, Moran, 2017;Schwartz-Mette, Smith, 2018).…”

Puberty and Transdiagnostic Risks for Mental Health

“…Empirical work indicates that it is associated with increased relationship satisfaction, but also predicts the onset of depression during adolescence (Stone, Hankin, Gibb, & Abela, 2011). Two longitudinal studies with adolescents offer possible explanations for co-rumination's role in depression: First, co-rumination may facilitate depressive "contagion" across friends (e.g., Schwartz-Mette & Smith, 2016). Second, episodes of co-ruminating with another person may ultimately lead to increased rumination in isolation, which in turn increases risk for depressive symptoms (Stone & Gibb, 2015).…”

Qualitative Exploration of the Potential for Adverse Events When Using an Online Peer Support Network for Mental Health: Cross-Sectional Survey

“…People taking part in online peer support should feel able to express themselves, but the adverse events of removing posts must be weighed against the risks of leaving them in place, such as the increased contagion and collusion observed on unmoderated platforms [ 18 , 19 ]. Evidence suggests that depression, emotions, and behaviors can pass from one person to another [ 20 ]. However, we do not yet know at what rate such interactions need to occur for contagion to have a negative impact on other users.…”

“…Co-rumination and collusion can reinforce or encourage negative thoughts, perceptions, and behaviors, and this can facilitate contagion [ 19 , 20 ]. No evidence of collusion and very limited evidence of co-rumination was found in our study.…”