1-175 - Parental Advice about Peer Relationships and Adjustment in Early Adolescence

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Even as youths seek to establish autonomy in the peer domain, parents may continue to shape and support their peer relationships. Yet, few studies focus on parenting behaviors specific to the peer domain around the transition to adolescence. The papers in the proposed symposium utilize multiple methods (e.g., longitudinal data, behavioral observations, physiological assessments) to examine the links between parental advice about peer relationships and adjustment in early adolescence. Parental advice is assessed across a variety of peer situations, including peer evaluation, exclusion, and victimization. In longitudinal analyses, Paper 1 finds that parents’ observed and self-reported prosocial behavioral advice about peer challenges predicts early adolescents’ self-efficacy in stressful social situations. Paper 2 reports that observed parental consulting about typical peer situations may promote behavioral, emotional, and peer adjustment, particularly among youths with more hostile attributions. Paper 3 illustrates that the same type of advice may not be effective for all youths. Specifically, among physiologically under-reactive youths, parental encouragement to use engagement coping (e.g., problem-solving, positive thinking) with peer victimization is associated with fewer social, emotional, and behavioral problems, whereas among highly reactive youths, frequent parent encouragement to both engage and disengage (e.g., avoid) with peer victimization predicts better adjustment. Collectively, these papers examine parental advice about peer relationships from multiple angles and elucidate connections between parental advice and early adolescent adjustment across several domains, as well as in the context of individual risk attributes.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chair

• Kelly M. Tu, Auburn University

Individual Presentations

• Linking Parental Social Coaching with Early Adolescents' Concurrent and Prospective Social Adjustment - Presenting Author: Kim Gregson, Auburn University; Stephen Erath, Auburn University; Gregory S Pettit, Auburn University; Kelly M. Tu, Auburn University; Shu Su, Auburn Univ; Shannon Elizabeth McDaniel, Auburn University

• Maternal Consulting as a Moderator of Adolescents' Hostile Attributions: An Observational Study - Presenting Author: Nina S. Mounts, Northern Illinois University; Haeli Gerardy, Northern Illinois University; Braima Salaam, Northern Illinois University; Elizabeth Rusnak, Northern Illinois University

• Interactive Contributions of Parent Socialization of Coping with Peer Stress and Skin Conductance Reactivity to Child Adjustment - Presenting Author: Jamie L Abaied, University of Vermont