Poster #218 - Association Between Co-rumination and Negative Friendship Features in Female Friendships

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Co-rumination, the excessive discussion of personal problems within a dyadic relationship (Rose, 2002), is associated with both greater friendship quality and higher depression among adolescent girls (Stone et al., 2011). While adolescent boys also co-ruminate, male co-rumination is associated with increased friendship quality only, not elevated depression. This was found even in older adolescent samples where males and females reported similar rates of co-rumination (Barstead et al, 2013). It is unclear why co-rumination is uniquely associated with depression in females. Additionally, to date no studies have investigated whether co-rumination is associated with negative features of friendship quality. It is possible that negative friendship features (i.e., conflict and antagonism) may be differently associated with co-rumination. The current investigation sought to clarify gender differences in the socioemotional tradeoffs of co-rumination using a sample of same- and cross-gender friend dyads, and including the assessment of both positive and negative friendship features.
Participants were 88 friend dyads (N = 176 participants) between the ages of 18 and 25 years, recruited into either same-gender female (n = 36 dyads), same-gender male (n=15 dyads), or cross-gender dyads (n = 37 dyads). They completed the Co-Rumination Questionnaire (Rose, 2002) and Network of Relationships Inventory- Social Provisions Version (Furman & Buhrmester, 1985) regarding their participating friend. Students also completed the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1996). A one-way ANOVA indicated significant differences between average co-rumination scores of dyad types, F(2,88.03)=6.64, p=.002, η2=0.14. Post hoc analyses revealed that co-rumination in female dyads was significantly higher than in both cross-gender (p<.001) and male (p<.001) dyads, which did not significantly differ from each other, p=0.27 (Table 1).
A multilevel linear model with participants nested within dyads with fixed effects of co-rumination entered as a predictor of depression was tested separately for male and female participants. The main effects were found to be not significant for either females or malesLinear regression analyses with average dyad co-rumination predicting positive friendship features revealed significant associations for female (b=0.43, r2=0.31), male (b=0.67, r2=0.45), and cross-gender dyads (b=0.44, r2=0.35; all ps<.001). When the analysis was repeated with negative friendship features as the dependent variable, the association was nonsignificant in male (p=0.65) and cross-gender dyads (p=0.99). However, co-rumination accounted for 19% of the variance in female dyads’ reported negative friendship quality, b=0.22, r2=0.19, and the overall model was significant, F(1, 1.47) = 15.90, p<.001 (Figure 1).
Although the well-documented association between co-rumination and depression was not replicated, it is striking that negative features of friendship quality were associated with co-rumination for participants in female dyads, while positive friendship features were predicted by co-rumination across all dyad types. The lack of association between co-rumination and negative friendship features in cross-gender friendships suggests a female-specific phenomenon. Future research is needed to determine whether female friendships with more negative features are more likely to co-ruminate, or whether co-rumination exacerbates negative friendship features. Regardless, co-rumination may pose potential risks in female same-gender friendships that are not present in cross-gender or male friendships.

Authors

• Helen Day, University of Maine
  Presenting Author

• Cynthia Erdley, University of Maine
  Non-Presenting Author