Is the Influence of Peer Context on Adolescents’ Emotion reactivity Conditioned by Peer Relationship Quality?

• In Event: 3-161 - Unpacking Emotion Regulation within Adolescent Peer Relationships: Innovative Approaches

Integrative Statement

The emerging literature on adolescent peer emotion socialization supports the notion that the peer context shapes youths’ emotional development. In fact, a body of research demonstrates that youth with weak emotion regulation skills have lower quality friendships. Yet, taking a bidirectional approach to development, the extent to which youth experience supportive friendships should also inform the amount to which their friends influence their expression and regulation of various emotions (Farley & Kim-Spoon, 2014). The current study aimed to examine the influence of friend presence on adolescents’ emotion reactivity, and whether this relation differed by levels of peer support. Participants were 156 (Mage = 14.6 years (SD = 1.3), 12-17 years, girls = 66%) disadvantaged adolescents who completed experience-sampling reports of their current emotions (happiness, excitement, loneliness, anger, worry, sadness, and jealousy), social context, and recent stressors, 5 x a day for 7 days. Emotion reactivity was assessed via change in an adolescent’s emotion from before to after the occurrence of a daily stressor. The presence of a friend was measured by asking adolescents who they were with at the time of their experience sampling report (i.e. with a friend, a number of friends, online friends, a romantic peer, family, a teacher, or alone). Friendship quality was measured prior to the experience sampling phase, via the peer support subscale of the Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale (Zimet et al., 1998).We hypothesized that being in the presence of friends (either single, multiple, online, or romantic), versus other social contexts (alone/with family/a teacher), would be associated with lower emotion reactivity to stressors, and that this relation would be strongest among youth with high perceived peer support. Analyses utilized Hierarchical Linear Modelling (i.e. repeated assessments nested within persons) in Mplus V8. Higher in peer support reported higher overall positive emotions and lower overall negative emotions across the week. A significant Social Context x Stressor interaction emerged for anger (b =.390[.08,.70]), such that being with friends after a stressor was associated with greater anger reactivity compared to being in other social contexts. The interaction of Social Context x Stressor x Peer Support was significant for worry (b = -.105 [-.19,-.02]) and for loneliness (b = -.070[-.13,-.01]).These interactions were probed by plotting the Social Context x Stressor interactions at high and low levels of Peer Support. Notably, adolescents High in Peer Support reported smaller increases in worry after a stressor if they were with friends, compared to other social contexts. However, being with friends was associated with larger increases in worry for adolescents Low in Peer Support (Figure 1a-b). Further, adolescents High in Peer Support showed smaller increases in loneliness after a stressor compared to those Low in Peer Support. Findings will be further discussed in relation to potential differences across peer contexts (e.g. friends on-line, single versus multiple friends). All told, findings highlight the salient role of supportive relationships in adolescents’ emotion reactivity.

Authors

• Bep Uink, Murdoch University
  Presenting Author

• Kathryn Modecki, Griffith University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Helen Correia, Murdoch University
  Non-Presenting Author

• B. L. Barber, Griffith University
  Non-Presenting Author