Children’s peer beliefs, friendlessness, and friendship quality: Reciprocal influences and contributions to internalizing symptoms.

Abstract

Children’s peer beliefs have been shown to mediate the link between stress experienced within the peer group and later internalizing symptoms. This study extends this research by examining bidirectional associations between children’s peer beliefs, friendlessness, and perceived friendship quality (i.e., receiving provision, negative treatment) and identifying indirect pathways to internalizing symptoms. Participants (N = 366; Mage = 9.34 years, SD = .07; 196 girls) reported on their peer beliefs, classroom friendships, friendship quality, and internalizing symptoms at 3 time points across 1 calendar year. Receiving provision from friends predicted less negative peer beliefs. Negative peer beliefs predicted less received provisions from friends and higher levels of negative treatment, and, in turn, negative treatment from friends predicted higher levels of internalizing symptoms. These findings provide novel insights into how perceptions of the peer group relate to dyad-level relationship processes, including the potential contribution of peer beliefs to children’s peer adjustment.

Social experiences and youth psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study

“…These links remained six months later after the stay-at-home order period. Together, these findings are aligned with prior work showing that children and adolescents who experience social disconnection, isolation, and lower quality peer relationships are at increased risk for psychopathology (Erzen & Çikrikci, 2018;La Greca & Harrison, 2005;Spithoven et al, 2017;Troop-Gordon et al, 2019;Witvliet et al, 2010) and emerging work finding similar links during the pandemic (Asscheman et al, 2021;Campione-Barr et al, 2021;Ellis et al, 2020;Espinoza & Hernandez, 2022;Green et al, 2021;Hutchinson et al, 2021;Jones et al, 2022;Magson et al, 2021;. Of note, the negative association between peer support and internalizing symptoms was stronger for adolescents relative to children.…”

Why Does Classroom‐Level Victimization Moderate the Association Between Victimization and Depressive Symptoms? The “Healthy Context Paradox” and Two Explanations

“…Finally, in accordance with prior studies (Boivin et al., 1995; Ladd & Troop‐Gordon, 2003; Pedersen et al., 2007), we found that few received friendship nominations at Wave 2 predicted increases in depressive symptoms at Wave 3. To further clarify how friendships influence victims’ adjustment, it will be important to consider the role of friendship quality as well; lack of prosocial, intimate, and supportive interaction within friends may put victimized children at high risk for adjustment problems (Troop‐Gordon, MacDonald, & Corbitt‐Hall, 2019). For now, our findings indicate that low classroom‐level victimization reduced victims’ received friendship nominations, which in turn led to more depressive symptoms over time.…”

Academic performance and depression in Chinese children: Same‐domain and cross‐domain effects in friendships

“…From late childhood, friendships, as a distinct aspect of peer relationships, become increasingly salient in affecting the attitudes and behaviors of children due to their heightened needs for intimacy, mutual understanding, and emotional support (Bagwell & Bukowski, 2018; Furman & Rose, 2015). Research has shown that, in general, children who have friends and who do not have friends differ on various indexes of adjustment, such as peer group status, academic performance, and loneliness (Maunder & Monks, 2019; Troop‐Gordon et al, 2019), suggesting that friendships play an important role in shaping developmental outcomes.…”