Earlier Adolescent Peer Interactions Predict Internalizing Symptom Response to Covid-19

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

Introduction: Of concern for adolescent researchers is the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on teens’ social isolation. Research on the mental health consequences of the pandemic is limited given its recent onset. However, early work suggests that COVID-19 stress is positively related to adolescents’ depressive symptoms (e.g., Ellis et al., 2020), higher levels of depressive and anxious symptoms are seen post-pandemic than pre-pandemic in college students (e.g., Zimmermann et al., 2020), and greater severity of early life stress predicts more depressive symptoms and perceived stress during the pandemic in young adults (Beam & Kim, 2020). Importantly, research has yet to examine adolescents’ peer interactions pre-pandemic as a predictor of functioning during Covid-19, and only a small number of studies were longitudinal at all. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to investigate how pre-pandemic negative peer interactions (aggression and peer victimization) predict changes in depression and anxiety from pre-pandemic to mid-pandemic.

Method: Participants included 96 adolescents (53 female, 42 male, 1 other) with a mean age of 16.79 at the time of the COVID-19 data collection. Parents reported participants’ race/ethnicity as 68.8% European American, 9.4% Latino American, 8.3% African American, 7.3% Asian American, and 6.3% of mixed race or ethnicity. At T1 (June 2019-February 2020; pre-pandemic), participants completed self-report measures of victimization (Comprehensive Scales of Traditional Peer Victimization; Morrow et al., 2014), aggression (Forms and Functions of Aggression Questionnaire, Little et al., 2003), depression (Children’s Depression Inventory 2 Short Version; Kovacs, 2011), and anxiety (Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children – 10; March et al., 1997) during a lab visit. At T2 (May 2020-July 2020; mid-pandemic), participants re-completed these same measures of depression and anxiety via an online questionnaire.

Results: We assessed change in adolescents’ anxiety and depression from T1 to T2 using latent change score modeling (Kievit et al., 2018). Overall, adolescents’ reports of anxiety and depression increased from T1 to T2. When T1 peer interaction variables were added to the model, T1 Peer Victimization was a significant predictor of T1-T2 Anxiety Change, whereas T1 Aggression was a significant predictor of T1-T2 Depression Change. More specifically, T1 Peer Victimization negatively predicted T1-T2 Anxiety Change, indicating that adolescents with more T1 Peer Victimization reported decreases in anxiety symptoms from T1 to T2 (Est = -.28, p =.02). Similarly, T1 Aggression negatively predicted Depression Change, indicating that adolescents with more T1 Aggression reported decreases in depressive symptoms at T2 (Est = -.34, p = .00). No significant associations emerged between T1 Peer Victimization and T1-T2 Depression Change or between T1 Aggression and T1-T2 Anxiety Change.

Discussion: These findings establish the importance of adolescents’ pre-pandemic peer interactions in predicting internalizing symptoms mid-pandemic. They suggest that social isolation may serve as a buffer against internalizing problems for adolescents who were experiencing more frequent negative peer interactions before the pandemic. While most adolescents are detrimentally affected by social isolation, peer victimized and aggressive youth may actually feel relieved as they no longer have to face the possibility or reality of problems with peers.

Authors

• Fanny Mlawer, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• Christina Moore, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Julie A Hubbard, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Zachary Mark Meehan, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author