3-204 - The Connection Effect: Adolescent Peer Relations Predict Long-term Physical, Mental and Romantic Life Outcomes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

This symposium brings together three long-term studies that focus on the central question: What are the implications of adolescent peer-relationship qualities for long-term mental health, physical health and romantic life outcomes? The studies are international in scope, use methods ranging from intensive observation to international survey approaches, and will all be presented by the senior researchers on these projects.

The first study uses multiple methods and multiple reporters in a sample followed annually from ages 13 to 30 to identify the social factors in adolescence that best predict long-term romantic life satisfaction? A consistent role is found for same-gender peer relationships—one that appears more central than actual romantic experience in adolescence.

The second study follows a sample of 387 Australian adolescents intensively over a 4-year period and identifies the extent to which peer teasing interacts with pubertal timing to predict growth in appearance related-anxiety in turn leading to symptoms of eating disorders.

The third study uses a 7,000+ person international survey data set, drawing reports from more than 130 countries, to assess the long-term implications of adolescent peer experiences. The study finds long-term links from recollections of the quality of peer acceptance and rejection at ages 11 to 13 to physical health diagnoses, body mass index (BMI), and overall physical impairment.

Together, these studies highlight the importance of adolescent peer connections—both healthy and unhealthy--for longer-term outcomes and begin to identify critical facets of these connections that can predict key outcomes well into adulthood.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chair

• Joseph Allen, University of Virginia

Discussant

• Brett Laursen, Florida Atlantic University

Individual Presentations

• The Friendship Effect: Implications of Adolescent Social Relationship Quality for Adult Romantic Life Satisfaction - Presenting Author: Joseph Allen, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Rachel Narr, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Jessica Kansky, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: David E. Szwedo, James Madison University

• Body Image, Appearance Anxiety and Eating: Social and Pubertal Origins of Trajectories over 8 Years - Presenting Author: Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck, Griffith University; Non-Presenting Author: Haley Webb, Griffith University, School of Applied Psychology Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia; Non-Presenting Author: Lara J. Farrell, Griffith University, School of Applied Psychology Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia; Non-Presenting Author: Allison M. Waters, Griffith University, School of Applied Psychology Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia; Non-Presenting Author: Wyndol Furman, University of Denver

• Childhood Peer Rejection and Physical Health in Middle Adulthood: A Worldwide Study of Recollections - Non-Presenting Author: Mitch Prinstein, UNC Chapel Hill; Presenting Author: Christopher S. Sheppard, University of North Carolina -Chapel Hill; Non-Presenting Author: Jacqueline Nesi, Brown University; Non-Presenting Author: Casey D. Calhoun, Medical University of South Carolina