Poster #217 - The Role of Friend Emotion Socialization in Adolescent Aggressive Behavior

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Association with deviant peers is a strong predictor of youth externalizing behavior problems such as aggression, with peer socialization of behavior one mechanism underlying this process (e.g., Utržan, Piehler, & Dishion, 2018). The socialization of emotions is also a strong influence on adolescent behavioral outcomes, but most of this research has focused on parents as the socialization agent (Garner, Dunsmore, & Southam-Gerow, 2008). Despite the role of peers in the development of youth aggression, there is little research on how peer socialization of emotion rather than behavior relates to aggression.
Participants were 202 adolescents [Time 1 (T1) Mage = 12.68, SD = 1.01; 75% White, middle-class] who participated in 101 reciprocated same-sex, best-friend dyads. Two years later (T2), data was collected from 72 dyads. At T1, adolescents reporting on their best friend’s frequency of supportive responses to their anger, worry, and sadness using the You and Your Friends questionnaire (YYF; Klimes-Dougan et al., 2014), Aggression was assessed at T1 with the Kids in my Class (Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1996) and at T2 with the Youth Self0-Report form (Achenbach, 2001).
Given the non-independence of the dyadic data, four Actor-Partner Interdependence Models (APIMs) were conducted using YYF supportive responses to anger and internalizing emotions (composite of worry and sadness) to predict aggressive behavior concurrently and longitudinally. The moderating role of gender was examined. At T1, there were significant actor effects for anger (b = -.169, t(191) = -2.89, p = .01) and internalizing emotions (b = -.192, t(193) = -2.90, p = .01), such that receiving supportive responses by friends to anger and worry/sadness was associated with lower bullying behavior. Gender did not moderate these findings. See Figure 1. Longitudinally, a marginally significant actor effect was found for anger (b = -.260, t(125) = -1.86, p = .07), and a significant actor effect emerged for internalizing emotions (b = -.287, t(131) = -2.07, p = .04). Receiving supportive responses to anger and worry/sadness at T1 was associated with reduced levels of T2 aggressive behavior. See Figure 2. There was a marginally significant gender interaction for the actor effect for internalizing emotions (b = .246, t(129) = -1.43, p = .08), such that this relation was significant for girls (b = -.29, t(73) = -1.98, p = .05) but nonsignificant for boys.
These results demonstrate that supportive responses by best friends to emotional expressivity is an important factor related to reducing aggressive behavior both concurrently and longitudinally. The role of emotion type and gender are important variables to consider because findings differed by these factors. The results demonstrate that emotion socialization processes within friend dyads exert an effect on behavior throughout adolescence even accounting for existing similarity between friends. As stated by Dishion and Patterson (2006), peer relationships are part of the problem of youth anti-social behavior, but are also part of the solution.

Authors

• Sara Franklin-Gillette, William & Mary
  Presenting Author

• Janice Zeman, William & Mary
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joseph Cronin, William & Mary
  Non-Presenting Author

• Bailey Harlow, William & Mary
  Non-Presenting Author