1. Maternal Support Behaviors and the Development of Peer Competence During Adolescence Maryfrances R. Porter Sally H. Kaufmann Department of Psychology University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia We would like to thank the National Institute of Mental Health for funding awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator, (Grant #R01 MH58066) to conduct this project. The analysis and write-up for this study were additionally supported by a National Research Service Award (Grant # F31-MH65711-01) awarded to Maryfrances R. Porter.

2. Abstract Establishing strong friendships is widely recognized as a major developmental task of adolescence. Bowlby's attachment theory (1982) suggests individuals’ early experiences with caregivers, especially parental sensitivity and responsiveness to their distress, establishes internal cognitive-emotional expectations that influence how future peer relationships are approached. Mothers who provide inadequate support for their adolescents may fail to model prosocial behaviors for teens, and the lack of consistent, sensitive support may cement teens’ negative interpersonal expectations, thereby impacting their peer competence. Using a multi-method, multi-reporter, longitudinal design, this study found that adolescents, whose mothers were insensitive when they asked for help, were rated by their peers as using increasingly poor conflict management strategies and as becoming less socially accepted over time.

3. Introduction Establishing strong friendships is widely recognized as a major developmental task of adolescence (Allen & Land, 1999), and has been associated with indicators of adaptive interpersonal and emotional adjustment. Difficulty relating to peers is associated with the presence of internalizing and externalizing symptoms as well as with problems in romantic relationships during adolescence (e.g., Berndt, 1996; Buhrmester, 1990; Connolly, Furman, & Konarski, 2000; Furman, 1999; Hartup, 1996; Newcomb & Bagwell, 1996; Schonert-Reichl & Beaudoin, 1994), and is associated with a vast array of negative outcomes, from conflictual marital relationships to increased likelihood of early death (Miller, Smith, Turner, Guijarro, & Hallet, 1996; Sroufe, Egeland, & Carlson, 1999). One way in which the ability to establish and maintain strong relationships with peers can be understood is in terms of precursors in children’s relationships with parents (Ainsworth, 1989; Gavin & Furman, 1996). Bowlby's attachment theory (1982) suggests individuals’ early experiences with caregivers, especially parental sensitivity and responsiveness to their distress, establishes internal cognitive-emotional expectations that influence how future peer relationships are approached (Cassidy, Kirsh, Scolton, & Parke, 1996; Kobak, Cole, Ferenz-Gillies, Fleming, & Gamble, 1993). Although we have evidence in childhood supporting links between parent-child processes and peer competence (Clark & Ladd, 2000), we know relatively little about how parental support behavior may influence the development of interpersonal competence in adolescence.

4. Hypotheses Mothers who provide adolescents inadequate support may not only fail to model prosocial behaviors, but their lack of consistent, sensitive responses to adolescents’ problems may cement teens’ negative interpersonal expectations (e.g., Shirk, Boergers, Eason, & Van Horn, 1998). These negative expectations may result in an inability to prosocially manage conflict (e.g., via negative attribution biases Dodge, Pettit, McClaskey, & Brown, 1986), which is critical in developing close friendship competence (Buhrmester, 1990; Canary, Cupach, & Messman, 1995). Adolescents who are unable to prosocially manage conflicts with peers may be perceived as less accepted socially. Therefore, this study will specifically consider the following hypotheses: 1.Adolescents, whose mothers are insensitive when responding to teens’ problems, will develop increasingly poor interpersonal competence over time, as reflected by an inability to prosocially manage conflict and a lack of social acceptance. 1.Adolescents, whose mothers are sensitive and responsive to teens’ problems, will develop more interpersonal competence over time, as reflected by prosocial conflict management.

5. Participants Data were collected as part of a larger, longitudinal, multi-method, multi-reporter, study of a socioeconomically diverse sample of adolescents (N = 185). Adolescents were about 13 years old (mean = 13.36, SD =.66) at the first wave of data collection. Gender N Male 87 Female 98 Race/Ethnicity (self-identified at Time 1) Caucasian113 Other/Mixed Minority 72 Family Income (parent-report at Time 1) Mean$30,000 - $39,000 Range  $5,000 - >$60,000

6. Measures  Observed Maternal Support Behaviors were assessed using the Supportive Behavior Coding System (Allen, Insabella, Hall, Marsh, & Porter, 1999). The adolescent and his/her mother discussed a problem with which the adolescent requested support when the teen was 13 years old. Two trained raters coded each interaction. Spearman-Brown interrater reliability coefficients for the scales used range from.75 to.82.  Peer-Reported Teen Friendship Competency was gathered from peers about the teen at data collection Times 1 and 2 using the following two scales: Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (Buhrmester, 1988, 1990), Conflict Resolution subscale, 8-items e.x., How good is _____ at dealing with disagreements in ways that make both people happy in the long run? Cronbach’s alphas: Wave 1 =.87, Wave 2 =.90. Harter Self-Perception Inventory (Harter, 1988), Social Acceptance subscale, 4-items e.x., Some teens feel that they are accepted by other teens their age. Other teens wish that more teens their age accepted them. Cronbach’s alphas: Wave 1 =.77, Wave 2 =.79.

7. Results  Table 1 provides the simple correlations as well as means and standard deviations for all variables in this study.  Hypothesis 1: Adolescents, whose mothers were more negative when the teen asked for support, used less prosocial conflict management strategies over time (  = -.20, p .05, Table 2). Adolescents, whose mothers deflected adolescents’ problems by self-disclosing when teens asked for support, became less accepted socially over time (  = -.22, p .01, Table 3).  Adolescents, whose mothers who are not sensitive and responsive to their problems, may maintain a set of negative interpersonal expectations that adversely impact their peer competence.  Hypothesis 2: Adolescents, whose mothers were more engaged and better understood the teens’ problem, used more prosocial conflict management strategies over time (respectively:  =.20, p .05, Table 4;  =.19, p .05, Table 5). Maternal sensitivity and responsiveness to adolescents’ problems may encourage the development of prosocial conflict management strategies.

8. Discussion These findings suggest that mothers’ influence on their adolescents’ peer competence may not merely result from modeling. The fact that mother’s supportive behavior predicts development of teen’s conflict management skills suggests that more complex underlying mechanisms may be present. Adolescents, whose mothers do not respond sensitively to their problems, may approach interpersonal conflict with a strong set of negative expectations. These negative expectations may result in a lack of development of specific skills that inhibit prosocial conflict management. Since successful conflict management is a hallmark of close friendship competence during adolescence, these teens’ also may become less socially accepted over time. Alternatively, mothers who are not supportive when adolescents ask for help may also model poor conflict management strategies with their teens. Additional research needs to be conducted to fully explore such alternative possibilities. Furthermore, although the data presented here are longitudinal, causal relationships may not be assumed. Ongoing research into the specific links between parental supportive behaviors during adolescence and the development of teens’ peer competence is warranted.

9. Table 2 Hierarchical Regression Results  R2R2  R2 R2 1. Teen’s Conflict Mgmt, Time 1.23**.05 2. Gender (male=1, female=2) Minority Status (Caucasian=1, Minority=2).21* -.10.09.04 3. Mother’s Negativitiy-.20*.13.04 N = 126 Note.  ’s are from entry into the models. ***p .001, **p .01, *p<.05 Predicting Teen’s Conflict Management at Time 2

10. Table 3 Hierarchical Regression Results  R2R2  R2 R2 1. Teen’s Social Acceptance, Time 1.32**.10 2. Gender (male=1, female=2) Minority Status (Caucasian=1, Minority=2) -.02.10.11.01 3. Mother’s Self-Disclosure-.22*.16.05 N = 131 Note.  ’s are from entry into the models. ***p .001, **p .01, *p<.05 Predicting Teen’s Social Acceptance at Time 2

11. Table 4 Hierarchical Regression Results  R2R2  R2 R2 1. Teen’s Conflict Mgmt, Time 1.23**.05 2. Gender (male=1, female=2) Minority Status (Caucasian=1, Minority=2).21* -.10.09.04 3. Mother’s Engagement.20*.13.04 N = 131 Note.  ’s are from entry into the models. ***p .001, **p .01, *p<.05 Predicting Teen’s Conflict Management at Time 2

12. Table 5 Hierarchical Regression Results  R2R2  R2 R2 1. Teen’s Conflict Mgmt, Time 1.23**.05 2. Gender (male=1, female=2) Minority Status (Caucasian=1, Minority=2).21* -.10.09.04 3. Mother’s Understanding of Teen’s Problem.21*.14.05 N = 131 Note.  ’s are from entry into the models. ***p .001, **p .01, *p<.05 Predicting Teen’s Conflict Management at Time 2