Age-Varying Associations of Parent and Friend Support with Depressive Symptoms from Adolescence through Early Adulthood

• In Event: 3-116 - The interparental Relationship, Parenting, and Child Adjustment: New Insights from State-of-the-Art Methods

Integrative Statement

Depression in adolescence is associated with social, behavioral, and educational impairments. Yet, feelings of closeness in key relationships – with parents and with friends – have been documented as protective factors for adolescent depression. Developmentally, adolescents’ report declines in how close they feel to their parents across early- to middle-adolescence; however, they also report increasing feelings of closeness with friends during this period. Thus, a more complete understanding of the protective role of parent-adolescent closeness should account for friendships at that time to clarify the degree to which parent-adolescent relationships serve a protective function across development. Moreover, adolescent gender may be an important factor, given differences in the prevalence in girls’ and boys’ depression. This study sought to answer three questions: a) what are the developmental patterns of parent support, friend support, and depressive symptoms from early adolescence into young adulthood? b) is parent support a robust protective factor for adolescent depressive symptoms across development (controlling for friend support)? and c) are there gender differences in these findings?
Time-varying effect models (TVEM) were utilized to capture the dynamic associations of parent and friend support with depressive symptoms from age 12.5 to 20 years old. Data were from 6,472 participants in Waves 1 and 2 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Participants reported parent support, friend support, and depressive symptoms.
Developmental patterns in depressive symptoms, parent support, and friend support are presented in Figure 1. Gender differences in depressive symptoms were evident from age 13.5 to about age 19, with girls reporting higher levels of depressive symptoms during these years. For girls, depressive symptoms increased linearly from age 12.5 to age 16 and then leveled off. For boys, depressive symptoms increased gradually and steadily from age 13.5 through age 20. Parent support declined over this developmental period equally for boys and girls. However, friend support was relatively stable across age for boys and girls but girls consistently reported higher levels of friend support from age 12.5 to about age 19.
We then examined age-varying associations of parent support with adolescent depressive symptoms. Overall, parent support, controlling for friend support, was associated with fewer depressive symptoms from age 13 through age 20. However, gender differences indicated that parent support was more strongly associated with girls’ depression than boys’ depression between the ages 14.1 to 16.6, with the strongest association with girls’ depression at about age 15 (Figure 2). Parent support was relatively consistently associated with boys’ depressive symptoms across age.
Parent support, above and beyond friend support, seems to be protective of adolescent depressive symptoms across adolescence and young adulthood. The strength of association between parent support and depressive symptoms is strongest around mid-adolescence for girls, suggesting that adolescent girls may be particularly responsive to parent support in this period. Gender differences in strength of association of parent support with depressive symptoms may partly explain gender differences in adolescent depression. Research highlights the importance of parents and friends for adolescent well-being.

Authors

• Hio Wa Mak, Pennsylvania State University
  Presenting Author

• Greg Fosco, Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephanie T Lanza, Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author