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This study examined friendship selection and socialization as mechanisms explaining similarity in depressive symptoms in adolescent same-gender best friend dyads. The sample consisted of 1,752 adolescents (51% male) ages 12–16 years (M = 13.77, SD = 0.73) forming 487 friend dyads and 389 nonfriend dyads (the nonfriend dyads served as a comparison group). To test our hypothesis, we applied a multigroup actor–partner interdependence model to 3 friendship types that started and ended at different time points during the 2 waves of data collection. Results showed that adolescents reported levels of depressive symptoms at follow-up that were similar to those of their best friends. Socialization processes explained the increase in similarity exclusively in female dyads, whereas no evidence for friendship selection emerged for either male or female dyads. Additional analyses revealed that similarity between friends was particularly evident in the actual best friend dyads (i.e., true best friends), in which evidence for socialization processes emerged for both female and male friend dyads. Findings highlight the importance of examining friendship relations as a potential context for the development of depressive symptoms.

Several links between aspects of executive functioning and the development of social competence have been established. The present study investigates the relation between executive inhibitory control and cooperative/non-cooperative behavior, in an ecological setting, and from a longitudinal perspective. Elementary school children (n=195) of three age groups (7, 9, 11 years, initially) were measured at two consecutive time points, at a one-year interval, with tasks tapping executive inhibitory control (the Stroop test), and social competence (a collaborative puzzle solving task). Executive inhibition was identified as the most influential stable predictor only in the case of non-cooperative behavior and presented strong concurrent relations with both cooperative and non-cooperative behavior at follow-up, even when controlling for previous level of the same behavior. The findings imply the need to consider the important role of executive inhibitory processes in multifactorial models of social competence development and in the refinement of present interventions.

This study distinguishes different patterns of friendship quality in terms of support from and conflict with friends, and reciprocity. Associations between friendship patterns and adolescents' adjustment (self-perception, expectations for the future, depressive feelings, sense of alienation, lying, disobedience, and aggression) were hypothesized to be moderated by family stress and friendship reciprocity. The sample comprised 622 adolescents of both genders, aged 14 to 20 years. We administered a questionnaire, including the Friendship Quality Scale and a peer nomination, twice at a 6-month interval. We identified two patterns of stable friendships: high (47%) and low (37%) quality. In two other groups, friendship quality changed over time, either from low to high (7%), or from high to low (9%). Of all adolescents, 58% had reciprocal and stable friends and 42% had unilateral friends. Under conditions of high family stress, supportive friendships do not have a positive effect on expectations for success and sense of alienation. Reciprocal friendship promotes higher levels of lying and disobedience but also protects against aggression. Summarizing, the effects of friendship quality can be moderated, either diminishing or exacerbating it, by other context factors.