Poster #43 - Family alliance as an antecedent of depressive and anxiety symptoms in early adolescence: Friendship quality as a mediating factor

• In Event: Poster Session 03

Abstract

Children first learn about relationships within their family and then gradually move on to a larger social world in which they can use the skills they have learned in their younger years to interact with their peers. These essential relationships, with family and peers, provide youth with crucial tools as they develop, supporting their socioemotional functioning. Indeed, relationships of better quality within the family (Dagan et al., 2022) and with friends (Schwartz-Mette et al., 2020) have both been linked to better socioemotional functioning in subsequent years, although generally independently. Yet, family influences constitute an important developmental antecedent of children’s capacity to make and to keep friends (Pallini et al., 2014); therefore, friendship is likely to act as a bridge between early family influences and child subsequent socioemotional adjustment. To our knowledge, no study has yet examined a developmental cascade by which early interactions within the family spillover to children’s friendships and then, to their socioemotional functioning.
With a sample of 87 middle-class families, this study aimed to examine a 6-year socioemotional developmental cascade linking family alliance (the degree of mother–father–child engagement and coordination in joint activities) in kindergarten to anxiety and depressive symptoms in early adolescence through the mediating role of friendship quality in middle childhood.
When children were aged 6 years, their family alliance with their father and mother was assessed based on the 15-minute Lausanne Trilogic Play (Fivaz-Depeursinge & Corboz-Warnery, 1999), rated using the Family Alliance Assessment Scales (Favez et al., 2011). Interrater reliability on 25% of double-coded interactions was excellent, ICC = .91. The quality of children’s relationship with their best friend was self-reported by children with the Friendship Quality Questionnaire (Parker & Asher, 1993) at age 10. Finally, at ages 12 and 13 years (averaged), adolescents reported on their anxiety (Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale–Second Edition Short Form; Reynolds & Richmond, 2008) and depressive symptoms (Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire; Angold et al., 1995). Mediation analysis was conducted using the PROCESS macro in SPSS, controlling for family socioeconomic status and child sex.
The results showed that children who experienced better family alliance at 6 years had relationships of higher quality with their best friend at 10 years (B = .36, p < .001), which in turn, predicted less anxiety (B = –.29, p = .011), but not depressive symptoms (B = –.23, p = .190) in early adolescence. There was a significant indirect effect of family alliance on anxiety through friendship quality (estimate = –.102, bias-corrected bootstrapped CI [BCBCI] = –.216 – –.024) though not depression.
The results raise the hypothesis that through exposure to fluid organization, co-construction, and affect sharing with their parents, kindergarteners learn critical relational skills that they can later use in interacting with peers, which likely supports their capacity to develop friendships that provide validation and companionship. In turn, these social provisions may act as protective factors against the development of anxiety symptoms in early adolescence, a key period for the development of anxiety symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

Authors

• Camille Marquis-Brideau, Université de Montréal (UdeM)
  Presenting Author

• Annie Bernier, University of Montreal

• Marie-Julie Béliveau, Université de Montréal (UdeM)

• Melanie A Dirks, McGill University