Poster #126 - Relations Between Observations of Maternal Peer Management and Positive Word Use on Adolescents’ Social Behavior

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

This investigation used an observational approach to examine parental management of peer relationships and maternal use of positive emotion words (MPEW). Based on self-report investigations, there is growing evidence that peer management is related to adolescents’ peer relationships (Gerardy, et al., 2015; McDowell & Parke, 2009; Mounts, 2011; Poulin, et al., 2012; Statin & Kerr, 2000; Valentiner & Mounts, 2017). Three aspects of management were examined: soliciting information (or monitoring), consulting (or problem-solving), and guiding (regulating) with three questions. First, how are maternal soliciting, consulting, and guiding related to positive friendship quality, friendship conflict, prosocial behavior, receiving prosocial behavior, and loneliness? Second, how is MPEW related to adolescents’ social behavior? Third, are the interactions between peer management and MPEW related to the outcomes? Sixty-eight diverse adolescent-mother dyads completed (51% girls; Mage = 12.39 years) questionnaires and video-recorded conversations of typical peer relationship hypothetical situations. Mothers’ behaviors were coded into mutually exclusive categories using INTERACT (Mangold, 2015) and interrater reliability was calculated. Cohen’s kappa was above .77 for soliciting, consulting, and guiding. MPEW was coded by transcribing mother-adolescent conversations verbatim and then using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count 2015 software (Pennebaker, Boyd, Jordan & Blackburn, 2015). Reliability for MPEW was α=.64. The Friendship Quality Questionnaire (Parker & Asher, 1993; Rose & Asher, 1999) was used to assess positive friendship quality (alpha=.95; 43 items) and friendship conflict (alpha=.82; 6 items). The Child Social Behavior Scale (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995) assessed adolescents’ prosocial behavior (alpha=.77; 4 items) and the Child Social Experiences Questionnaire (Crick & Grotpeter, 1996) was used to assess recipient of prosocial behavior (alpha=.74; 5 items). The Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Scale (Asher & Wheeler, 1985) was used to assess adolescents’ loneliness (alpha=.91; 16 items). Variables were entered into hierarchical regression analyses in the following steps: 1) sex of child; 2) soliciting, consulting, and guiding; 3) MPEW; and 4) interactions. PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) was used to examine interaction effects. Higher levels of solicitation were related to higher levels of positive friendship quality (Beta=.30, p=.02), higher levels of prosocial behavior (Beta=.35, p=.01), and lower levels of loneliness (Beta=-.27, p=.05). Higher levels of guiding were related to lower levels of prosocial behavior (Beta=-.24, p=.05). There were no direct effects of consulting and MPEW on the outcomes. The interaction between solicitation and MPEW was significant for prosocial behavior (Beta=-1.00, p=.03) and recipient of prosocial behavior (Beta=-1.21, p=.01). For prosocial behavior, low and mean levels of MPEW in conjunction with lower levels of solicitation were related to lower levels of prosocial behavior Figure 1). Similarly, low levels of MPEW in conjunction with lower levels of solicitation were related to lower levels of being a recipient of prosocial behavior. There was a significant interaction between consulting and MPEW (Beta=1.70, p=.01) such that high levels of consulting in conjunction with higher levels of MPEW was related to higher levels of conflict with friends (Figure 2). Mothers may intervene with consulting and MPEW when adolescents have higher levels of conflict with friends.

Authors

• Lauren Hauck, Northern Illinois University
  Presenting Author

• Alysse Schultheis, Northern Illinois University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nina S Mounts, Northern Illinois University
  Non-Presenting Author