Longitudinal Associations Between Prosociality and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Children: The Mediating Role of Peer Preference

Depressive symptoms during the transition to adolescence: Left hippocampal volume as a marker of social context sensitivity

The transition to adolescence is a critical period for mental health development. Socio-experiential environments play an important role in the emergence of depressive symptoms with some adolescents showing more sensitivity to social contexts than others. Drawing on recent developmental neuroscience advances, we examined whether hippocampal volume amplifies social context effects in the transition to adolescence. We analyzed 2-y longitudinal data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD®) study in a diverse sample of 11,832 youth (mean age: 9.914 y; range: 8.917 to 11.083 y; 47.8% girls) from 21 sites across the United States. Socio-experiential environments (i.e., family conflict, primary caregiver's depressive symptoms, parental warmth, peer victimization, and prosocial school environment), hippocampal volume, and a wide range of demographic characteristics were measured at baseline. Youth's symptoms of major depressive disorder were assessed at both baseline and 2 y later. Multilevel mixed-effects linear regression analyses showed that negative social environments (i.e., family conflict, primary caregiver's depressive symptoms, and peer victimization) and the absence of positive social environments (i.e., parental warmth and prosocial school environment) predicted greater increases in youth's depressive symptoms over 2 y. Importantly, left hippocampal volume amplified social context effects such that youth with larger left hippocampal volume experienced greater increases in depressive symptoms in more negative and less positive social environments. Consistent with brain-environment interaction models of mental health, these findings underscore the importance of families, peers, and schools in the development of depression during the transition to adolescence and show how neural structure amplifies social context sensitivity.

Interpersonal stress generation among young adolescents: vulnerable and resilient interpersonal behaviors and the generation of negative and positive interpersonal events

Background

Theoretical and empirical studies on stress generation suggest four event generation processes: (1) vulnerability factors predict more negative interpersonal events; (2) vulnerability factors predict fewer positive interpersonal events; (3) resiliency factors predict fewer negative interpersonal events; and (4) resiliency factors predict more positive interpersonal events. However, few studies have examined these four processes simultaneously within a single analytic model. Therefore, it is unclear whether vulnerability and resiliency factors make unique and differential contributions to the occurrences of negative and positive interpersonal events.

General objectives

This study aimed to fill this important gap by examining whether social withdrawal and excessive reassurance-seeking (vulnerable interpersonal behaviors) and prosocial behaviors (a resilient interpersonal behavior) uniquely and differentially predict the occurrences of negative and positive peer events among young adolescents. This study also examined the sex differences in these relationships.

Methods

One hundred and ninety-eight students (109 girls) were recruited from a public middle school in Japan. A multiple-group path analysis was conducted to examine possible sex differences.

Results

Social withdrawal uniquely predicted more negative peer events for boys and fewer positive peer events for boys and girls. Excessive reassurance-seeking uniquely predicted both more negative peer events and more positive peer events for boys and girls. Prosocial behavior uniquely predicted more positive peer events for boys and girls.

Conclusion

This study underscores the unique and differential roles of vulnerable and resilient interpersonal behaviors in predicting negative and positive peer events among young adolescents. These findings not only advance our understanding of stress generation processes but also have broader implications for adolescent development and well-being.

Relations between Prosociality and Psychological Maladjustment in Chinese Elementary and Secondary School Students: Mediating Roles of Peer Preference and Self-Perceived Social Competence

Despite empirical findings that prosociality can prevent elementary and secondary school students from developing psychological maladjustment, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. The goal of the present study was to examine the mediating effects of peer preference and self-perceived social competence on the associations between prosociality and psychological maladjustment (i.e., depressive symptoms and loneliness). Participants were 951 students (Mage = 11 years, 442 girls) in Grades 3~7 from Shanghai, China. They completed peer nominations of prosociality and peer preference and self-report measures of self-perceived social competence, depressive symptoms, and loneliness. Multiple mediation analyses revealed that: (a) both peer preference and self-perceived social competence mediated the relations between prosociality and psychological maladjustment, and (b) a serial indirect pathway (i.e., prosociality → peer preference → self-perceived social competence → psychological maladjustment) emerged when controlling for age group and gender. These findings point to potential targets in the prevention and intervention of Chinese students' internalization of problems.

Best Friend's Popularity: Associations with Psychological Well-Being and School Adjustment in China During Early Adolescence

Popularity has been empirically linked to psychological and several indices of school adjustment outcomes during childhood and early adolescence. Yet, best friend popularity in relation to the adjustment outcomes remains unclear, especially in more interdependent-oriented cultures. To address this gap, this study applied the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) to simultaneously considering whether, and how, the popularity of youth (actor effects) and their best friends (partner effects) contribute uniquely to psychological well-being and school adjustment outcomes, after controlling for social preference. Age and gender differences were also examined. Participants were 162 same-gender best friend dyads (81 boys, M_age = 11.24 years, SD = 1.18) from Shanghai, P.R. China. Among the results, both youth's own and their best friends' popularity were positively related to self-esteem and school attitudes, and negatively related to depressive symptoms. In addition, results from multi-group analyses revealed both actor and partner effects did not vary across gender. Finally, exploratory analyses showed that only actor effects varied across age for the associations between popularity and self-esteem and school attitudes. These findings highlight the important role of the best friend's popularity in promoting Chinese youth's experiences of psychological and school adjustment.

Direct and Indirect Paths between Parental Marital Conflict and Children's Sibling Conflict in Chinese Families

Links between parental marital conflict and children's sibling conflict have been well examined; however, the underlying mechanism of this link needs to be further studied. This study investigated the mediating role of parental intervention styles (i.e. child-centered strategies, control strategies, and nonintervention strategies) and children's control behavior toward their sibling between parental marital conflict and children's sibling conflict. We recruited 689 Chinese children (53.7% girls) aged 8-13 years to participate in the study. Results indicated that parental marital conflict, control strategies, nonintervention strategies, and children's control behavior toward sibling were positively associated with sibling conflict among children. Child-centered strategies were negatively correlated with children's sibling conflict. Furthermore, control and nonintervention strategies of parents and control behavior of children toward sibling simultaneously partially mediated between parental marital and child-sibling conflict. The mediating role of child-centered strategies was not significant. These findings suggest that parental strategies of control and nonintervention and children's control behavior toward their sibling may increase the risk of sibling conflict among children after repeated exposure to parental marital conflict. In contrast, child-centered strategies may be a protective factor for children regarding sibling conflict. Current findings confirm the combined effects of parent and child behavior on child-sibling conflict. They also help parents deal with sibling conflict among their children and promote more positive relationships among siblings.

Reading prosocial content in books and adolescents’ prosocial behavior: A moderated mediation model with evidence from China

Drawing upon the General Learning Model, the present study developed a moderated mediation model to provide an in-depth understanding of whether and how adolescents’ reading prosocial content in books predicts their prosocial behavior. The target population in this study is Chinese adolescents, and we adopted a paper-based survey to collect data (N = 602). The age range of the sample was from 12 to 19 (M = 15.198, SD = 1.596). Among all participants, 49.3% were female, and 50.7% were male. PROCESS SPSS Macro was used to analyze the proposed moderated mediation model. The results showed that prosocial content reading was positively associated with adolescents’ prosocial behavior. The positive association included a direct relationship and an indirect relationship through the mediation of moral identity. Furthermore, this study revealed the moderation effect of age on the relationships among prosocial content reading, moral identity, and prosocial behavior. Specifically, as age increases, the effects of prosocial content reading on moral identity and prosocial behavior attenuate, and the mediation effect of moral identity also decreases. The study adds to the body of knowledge on the prosocial media effect by extending it to book reading.