FORWARD THINKING: PREPARING OUR YOUTH FOR THE COMING WORLD

OCTOBER 24 - 25 , 2011   UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA

Changing Contexts and Moving Targets:

Assessing Positive Peer Influences on Mental Health Across Developmental

Transitions

Bonnie Leadbeater, Jacqueline Homel, Kara Thompson and Paweena Sukhawathanakul

Positive Peer Influences in Childhood

The quality of peer relationships in early childhood is associated with: Greater levels of well-being (Holder &

Coleman, 2009); Lower levels of peer victimization (Ladd,

2006); Greater school engagement (Perdue, et al.

2009)

Positive Peer Influences in Adolescents on

Psychological adjustment (Hirsch & DuBois)

School engagement (Li, Lerner)Civic engagement and volunteering

(Youniss, Flanagan )Emotional distress (Newcomb & Bentler,

Allen)Substance use and delinquency

(Prinstein & Boergers, Allen & Antonishak, Catalano, Hawkins, etc.)

Driving (Brown)

Assessing Positive Peer Influences

Often assessed as individual traits

Friendship quality,Reciprocated “best” friends Emotional or social support, Sociomemetric status (accepted,

liked)

or the absence of associations with negative peer activities

Assessment is complicated in longitudinal studies

Peer influences are broader than close friendships,

Peer networks change (often frequently) over time

Changes in contexts fuel changes in peer networks Annual classroom re-organizations School transitions: elementary to middle school create

larger peer networks Shifts in interest (giving up band for shop, joining a

team) Family moves Developmental transitions (e. g. late adolescence to

early adulthood) Starting romantic relationships (often short term)

Outline: To open discussion

I am going to BRIEFLY present two of our efforts to conceptualize peer influences over time:

1. A study of individual and classroom effects of social competence and social responsibility in first to third grade students

2. A study of emotional support and positive peer activities in a sample of youth 12 to 18 whom we have followed for 6 years across the transition to young adulthood .

Study 1: Children in grades 1 to 3

With the elementary school children, we assessed the mediating effects of individual and classroom levels of variables at the intersection of individual and peer relationships:

Social competence and Social responsibility

and their effects as mediators of the relationship between peer victimization and internalizing or aggression

A WITS Program Evaluation

Sample

Baseline Time 1 Time 2

• Fall of 2006

• N = 830

Grades 1 to 3

• Fall of 2007

• N = 737

• Spring of 2008

• N = 732

(www.witsprogram.ca)

Measures: Its all about interactions

Physical and Relational Victimization: Child Report: Social Experience Questionnaire

Social Responsibility: Teacher Ratings • “Is friendly, caring, & helpful to others”; “Helps solve peer

conflicts”

Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) Parent ratings • Aggression “Teases others”, “ “Threatens to hurt others” • Internalizing ‘‘Worries’’, ‘‘Appears unhappy, sad’’• Social Competence

• Social skills: “congratulates others when good things happen to them”,

• Leadership: “is good at getting people to work together”,• Adaptability: “recovers quickly after a setback.”

(Crick & Grotpeter, 1996; Leadbeater & Sukhawathanakul, 2011; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004)

Assessing classroom levels

Classroom level scores were computed for each child as the average of his or her classmates’ social competence and social responsibility

i.e. without the influence of the child’s own score

(following Kellam, Aber etc.)

Effects of Victimization on Internalizing

Effects of Victimization on Aggression

Conclusion: quality of interactions matter

Children’s social competence with a variety of peers mediate the link between peer victimization and increases in mental health problems

Children’s socially responsible roles within classrooms may reduce the effects of victimization on internalization and aggression (by setting protective norms?)

Assessing classroom norms may require class level observational methods or annual renewal of sample to increase class size.

Study 2: Assessing positive peer influences across the transition to young adulthood

Using an accelerated longitudinal design we computed the trajectories of peer support and positive and negative

activities with peers and anxiety symptoms

We then asked Whether initial levels and changes in peer

support and peer activities predict changes in anxiety symptoms.

Data from the Victoria Healthy Youth Survey

Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Time 4

Spring 2003

• N = 662 (48% boys)

12 to 18 years (Mean 15.5)

Spring 2005

• N = 578 (87%) (47% boys)

14 to 20 years

Spring 2007

• N = 538 (81%) (46% boys)

16 to 22 years

Fall 2009

• N = 459 (70%) (44% boys)

18 to 25 years

Measures

Covariates Age, SES

Anxiety Symptoms Brief Child and Family Phone Interview

(Cunningham et al 2009)

Peer Emotional Support e.g. ‘I rely on my friends for emotional

support’ ‘My peers are good at helping me to solve problems

Quality of interactions with peers

Positive Peer Activities Difference between number of positive

activities (playing sport, working hard in school, performing, church or spiritual groups) and negative activities (smoking, drinking & using drugs, gangs, panhandling). Higher values indicate more positive activities.

Mean number of activities averaged across all waves is controlled to remove effects of more activity from the difference score.

Univariate trajectories of anxiety

T1 T2 T3 T45

5.25

5.5

5.75

6

6.25

6.5

6.75

7

MalesFemales

Time

Sy

mp

tom

Le

ve

l (0

-12

)

β = .26**

β = .21†

Univariate trajectories of peer support

T1 T2 T3 T44

5

6

7

8

9

MalesFemales

Time

Le

ve

l of

Su

pp

ort

(0

-9)

β=.08

β= .03

Univariate trajectories of peer activities

T1 T2 T3 T40

1

2

3

4

Positive activities Males

Positive activities Females

Negative activities Males

Negative activities Females

Time

Nu

mb

er

of

ac

tiv

itie

s

β= -.01

β = -.13 ***

β = .16 ***

β= .25***

Intercept

Slope

11

111

0

2 3

Intercept Slope

11

111

0

2 3

Intercept Slope

11

1110

2 3

AnxietyT1

AnxietyT2

AnxietyT3

AnxietyT4

Support T1

Support T4

Support T3

Support T2

Activities T1

Activities T2

Activities T3

Activities T4

Figure 4: Association between peer support, peer activities and anxiety symptoms over time

-.08 (-.52*)

-.11*(-.07)*

Coefficients for females are shown in parentheses

Conclusions: Interactions matter

Social support is stable across the transition to young adulthood and adolescent levels predict levels of anxiety in females.

Opportunities for positive peer activities decline and negative activities increase over the transition to young adulthood. BUT

Higher levels of positive activities in adolescence predict declines in anxiety over time for boys and girls.

Can we measure positive peer influences over time?

Peer (and romantic) relationships change frequently and vary systematically with context changes.

Assessing the effects of peer influences may need to take into account the values, beliefs and opportunities offered by the contexts of these influences – neighborhoods, schools, classrooms, colleges, residences, workplaces, etc. and the opportunities that these settings afford for positive interactions with peers.

Thinking forward?

How can we tap positive peer interactions across developmental stages and changing contexts ?

How can we improve opportunities for the positive peer interactions at each developmental stage and across transitions ?