1. Parents & Peers: Providing Teens with Different Tools to Develop Social Competence
Meghan Costello1, Laura Sylke2, David Szwedo2, & Joseph Allen1 University of Virginia1 & James Madison University2 For more information, please go to: We would like to thank the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development for funding awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator, (R01 HD & R01-MH58066) for funding to conduct this study as well as for the write-up of this study.
Introduction
Results
What do we learn about socialization from our peers and parents?
Peer Relationships:
Rejected kids tend to develop differently than “popular” kids (Ollendick, 1992).
Social support buffers adverse mental health effects of negative social experiences (Rigby, 2000).
Parental Relationships:
Secure attachment predicts better future mental health, peer trust (Meeus et al., 2002).
Child-reports of mother’s parenting style inversely correlate with anxiety and depression (Wei & Kendall, 2014).
1. Regression analyses revealed several positive associations between being liked by one’s larger peer group and later social competence, and between support from one’s best friend and lower future social anxiety (see Figure 1).
Adolescents with high parental attachment security and firm parental behavior control have higher levels of attachment in later social relationships and lower levels of loneliness (see Figures 3 & 4).
Age 13
Age 23
Social Integration
Popularity with Larger Peer Group
0.18*
0.23**
Seeking Social Support
Social Support from Best Friend
Social Anxiety
-0.18*
Hypotheses
Figure 1. Predicting social comfort and attachment behaviors from Peer Relationships.
Figure 3. Predicting later attachment from parental control and attachment security.
1. Adolescents who are liked by a large peer group and have social support from a best friend will have a higher social competence and less social anxiety in early adulthood.
2. Adolescents who have high attachment security and firm parental behavioral control will have positive social relationships and have higher social competence in early adulthood.
2. Regression analyses found that a secure parental attachment predicted greater future social competence and that firm parenting behavior predicted lower social anxiety (see Figure 2).
Secure Parental Attachment
Firm Parenting Behavior
Social Integration
Attachment in Social Relationships
Social Anxiety
0.17**
-0.23*
0.18*
Age 23
Age 14
Methods
Participants
N = 184
Gender Race/ethnicity Income
86 males Caucasian Median = $40,000 - $59,000
98 females African American
24 Mixed/Other
Figure 2. Predicting social comfort and attachment from Parent Relationships.
Figure 4. Predicting later loneliness from parental control and attachment security.
Measures
Like v. Dislike by Peer Group (age 13): Sociometric procedure, in which teens rank peers in order of likeability.
Social Support from Best Friend (age 13): Supportive Behavior Task, a 6-minute coded interaction task in which they asked their friend for advice.
Secure Attachment with Parents (age 14): Adolescent Attachment Interview to investigate teen’s attachment representations.
Firm v. Lax Parental Behavioral Control (age 14): Childhood Report of Parenting Behavior that asked the teen about parents’ behaviors.
Social Provisions Scale (age 23): Self-report of social attachment, social integration, turning to others for guidance, and seeking support.
Social Anxiety (age 23): Social Anxiety Scale, self-report of negative evaluation and social avoidance.
Loneliness (age 23): UCLA Loneliness Scale, self-report of loneliness.
Discussion
Adolescent social relationships play an important role in training social skills
and comfort in pursuing future social relationships:
General social comfort: multiple relationships shape…
future social anxiety (best friend, parenting behavior)
social integration (peer group, parenting behavior)
Social attachment behaviors: from peers and parents…
Learn our attachment from parents.
Tendency to seek social support were predicted by overall popularity.
It depends on the kid: firm parenting behaviors were effective in fostering secure future attachment and decreased loneliness only for securely attached teens.
Teens learn how comfortable to feel in social relationships from peers and parents
Future Directions:
The Connection Project
Replication with another sample
Parenting Interventions