Birds of a Feather: Amplification Effects of Teen Best Friendships on Psychological Functioning Meghan Costello, Joseph P. Allen, & Rachel Narr University of Virginia. For more information, please go to: www.teenresearch.org We would like to thank the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development for funding awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator, (R01 HD058305 & R01-MH58066) for funding to conduct this study as well as for the write-up of this study. Introduction Results Discussion Could friendships work in both harmful and beneficial ways? Co-rumination - reciprocal encouragement of problem talk, repeated interest in details of problems, wondering about problems, and dwelling on negative affect (Rose, 2014). Deviancy Training - friendships are organized around deviance amplify risk for maladaptation (Dishion, 2004). Regression analyses, conducted using a Full Information Maximum Likelihood approach for handling missing data, yielded significant results consistent with hypotheses (see Figures 1-4). Teen autonomous-relatedness and close peer engagement predicted relative changes in teen aggression and depression scores over the next year, moderated by teen baseline scores. The results suggest that friendship intensity in adolescence is associated with relative changes in aggression and depression depending on baseline psychopathologies. Effects are greater for teens who display more extreme baseline symptoms in either direction. Best friends can amplify intrinsic tendencies in both positive and negative directions. This likely occurs through selection of friends with similar qualities who socially reinforce those qualities. Hypotheses Greater friendship intensity will predict relative increases in depressive symptoms, but only for teens that had higher baseline depression. Greater friendship intensity will predict relative increases in aggressive symptoms, but only for teens that had higher baseline aggression. Figure 1. Predicting Changes in Depression from Autonomous-Relatedness Figure 2. Predicting Changes in Depression from Close Peer Engagement Methods Participants 175 teens, mean age 16.35 58% European-American, 29% African-American, and 13% mixed race/other Median family income $40,000-$59,000 Procedure Age 16: self-report surveys and discussion task Age 17: self-report surveys. Measures Depressive Symptoms: Childhood Depression Inventory. Aggressive Symptoms: Youth Self Report. Friendship Intensity: coded interaction tasks Autonomy, the extent to which reasoning is used to support argument; Relatedness, the extent to which the teen maintains a connected relationship with their peer; and Close Peer Engagement, the level of displayed investment or involvement in the discussion by the best friend. Figure 3. Predicting Changes in Aggression from Autonomous-Relatedness Figure 4. Predicting Changes in Aggression from Close Peer Engagement Thoughts? Questions? Ideas? E-mail: Meghan Costello; mac4qe@virginia.edu