Generation of Interpersonal Stressful Events

Abstract

This study developed two specifications of the social skills deficit stress generation hypothesis: the "gender-incongruence" hypothesis to predict peer victimization and the "need for autonomy" hypothesis to predict conflict with authorities. These hypotheses were tested in a prospective large population cohort of 2,064 Dutch young adolescents. Social skills and pubertal timing were measured when the sample was about 11 years old, and stressful life events were measured 2.5 years later at follow-up. As predicted by the gender-incongruence hypothesis, poor assertion in boys and poor selfcontrol in girls were associated with peer victimization. Consistent with

A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis of 30 years of stress generation research: Clinical, psychological, and sociodemographic risk and protective factors for prospective negative life events.

“…Or if stress generation increases in adolescence and decreases in adulthood, perhaps a study design that would ensure the greatest possible contrast would be one comparing preadolescent children, adolescents, and older adults. Only five studies (with four nonoverlapping samples; Bakker et al, 2011; Brinksma et al, 2018; Chan et al, 2014; Clements et al, 2008; Mezulis et al, 2010) had entirely preadolescent samples at baseline (only two if age at the end of study follow-up is used instead), as well as minimally overlapping predictor variables. Additionally, the highest mean baseline age of any sample in our meta-analysis was 61.0 (Holahan et al, 2005), as most studies skewed toward adolescence.…”

Assessing causal links between age at menarche and adolescent mental health: a Mendelian randomisation study

“…We also sought to explore the impact of the timing of diagnosis further, since this may have an impact on estimates. To this end, we divided the outcomes into new diagnoses in (1) preadolescence (ages 9-11), (2) early adolescence (ages [12][13][14], and (3) mid-late adolescence (ages [15][16][17]. For depression, there was only evidence of a causal relationship in early (OR = 0.50, 95% CI [0.26, 0.95]) and not mid-late adolescence (OR = 0.95, 95% CI [0.64, 1.41]).…”

“…Early pubertal timing has been associated with problems in a wide range of adolescent mental health domains (e.g., depression [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], anxiety [7,14,15], conduct disorders [3,7,[16][17][18][19], and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [6]) across different indicators of pubertal development and across sexes [20]. The consistency of associations between early timing and adolescent mental health has led to the hypothesis that early pubertal timing is a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology in adolescents [21].…”

Ghosts of the past?

“…For both teachers and parents, all items were assessed on a 3-point Likert scale (1 = never to 3 = very often). In line with a previous study using the same TRAILS data (Bakker et al, 2011), we combined the parent-and teacherreports using the means of the standardised scores. We standardised these composite estimates to have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1, where negative values reflect less assertion, cooperation, and self-control.…”

“…Social competence is crucial for establishing and maintaining positive interactions and relationships, key to a good quality of life and important for functioning interpersonal relationships (e.g., Beauchamp & Anderson, 2010;Cacioppo, 2002;Segrin & Rynes, 2009), and associated with reduced risk for involvement in bullying (Bakker et al, 2011;Camodeca & Goossens, 2005), mental health problems (e.g., Ward et al, 2010), and loneliness (e.g., Burke et al, 2013). Assertion, cooperation, and self-control are observable behaviours and considered to be "building blocks of social competence" (Ogden, 2003, p. 64), reflecting an individual's ability to establish and maintain positive interactions and relationships.…”