How girls and boys expect disclosure about problems will make them feel: implications for friendships

Gender Norms and Culture in Asian-Canadian Adolescent Boys’ Anticipating Dating Relationships

Adolescent romantic experiences can have profound developmental significance and may be predictive of future romantic relationships. Despite such potential significance, little is known about the challenges that confront teenage boys when navigating dating relationships. The present study sought to understand how masculine gender norms influence boys’ attitudes and behaviors and the influence of cultural expectations as they anticipate prospective dating relationships. Focus-group discussions were held with adolescent boys ( N = 23), ranging in age from 14 to 18 years, from a multicultural Canadian city. Grounded Theory methodology was used to analyze discussion responses. The Central Category of the grounded theory was Anticipating Getting Experience in Dating, while communicating and benefiting from relationships were subcategories. Masculine Gender Norms arose as the major Contextual Category. The findings demonstrate how these boys attempted to maintain a socially approved masculine status while coincidingly struggling with confidence and the demands of this status. Contextual factors involving peer expectations, social/digital media culture, multicultural context and parents’ expectations additionally contribute to their navigational struggles. Implications for boys’ relational development, in light of masculine gender norms, are addressed. Interventions are suggested to support boys in their development of confidence in romantic communications.

Parental distress rating at the child's age of 15 years predicts probable mental diagnosis: a three-year follow-up

Background

Mental health in adolescence is an increasing global public health concern. Over half of all mental disorders debut by 14 years of age and remain largely untreated up to adulthood, underlining the significance of early detection. The study aimed to investigate whether parental distress rating at the child’s age of 15 predicts a probable mental diagnosis in a three-year follow-up.

Methods

All data was derived from the Finnish Family Competence (FFC) Study. The analysis focused on whether parental CBCL (Child Behavior Checklist) rating (n = 441) at the child’s age of 15 years predicted the outcome of the child’s standardised DAWBA (Development and Well-Being Assessment) interview at offspring’s 18 years.

Results

Multivariable analysis showed that a one-unit increase in the total CBCL scores increased the relative risk of a DAWBA-based diagnosis by 3% (RR [95% CI] 1.03 [1.02–1.04], p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Parental CBCL rating in a community sample at the adolescent’s age of 15 contributes to early identification of adolescents potentially at risk and thus benefitting from early interventions.

Adolescent girls' intrapersonal and interpersonal parasympathetic regulation during peer support is moderated by trait and state co-rumination

Effective emotion regulation (ER) is integral to adolescents' mental well-being and socioemotional development. During adolescence, peer interactions have an increasingly salient influence on the development of effective ER, but not all supportive peer interactions support adaptive ER. Co-rumination reflects the tendency to seek ER support by engaging with peers in negatively focused discussion of ongoing problems. We examined associations between co-rumination (state and trait) with measures of individual's autonomic (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA) and affective regulation (self-report) among 30 female close-friend dyads (ages 11-17; 74% White) while engaged in a support-seeking discussion in the laboratory. We found that trait co-rumination corresponded with RSA withdrawal during peer support, suggesting a potential mechanism by which co-rumination contributes to dysregulated ER. We also examined dyadic patterns of physiological regulation via prospective change actor partner interdependence models (APIM). Partner effects were moderated by behaviorally coded state co-rumination. Dyads with high state co-rumination displayed coupled RSA movement in opposite directions, while dyads with low state co-rumination exhibited coupled RSA movement in the same direction. These findings are consistent with similar physiologic linkages in close relationships observed in other developmental periods. Results highlight the importance of multimodal assessment for characterizing social ER processes across development.

Linking post-stressor interpersonal processes in adolescent girls' close friendships with acute HPA stress responses

INTRODUCTION

For adolescent girls, close friendships may facilitate stress management and mitigate risk for internalizing psychopathology. However, little is known about how friendship processes may buffer (or potentially exacerbate) acute psychobiological responses to interpersonal stressors in ways that affect risk.

METHODS

In a sample of 220 girls (ages 12-17 years) with a history of internalizing symptoms, this study investigated friendship dynamics following the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) to evaluate associations between post-stressor friendship behaviors (expressions of vulnerability by the stressed teen; support offered by their close friend) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis stress responses.

RESULTS

Multilevel regression modeling revealed that girls who displayed more pronounced cortisol reactivity expressed greater vulnerability to, and received greater support from, their close friend. Expressed vulnerability was associated with more efficient cortisol recovery. Close friend support was not significantly associated with cortisol recovery, nor did it influence the connection between expressed vulnerability and cortisol recovery.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that HPA reactivity may prompt expressions of vulnerability to girls' close friends, and in this context, promote more efficient HPA recovery. Findings highlight the role friendship dynamics may play in HPA-related risk for internalizing symptoms and point to expressed vulnerability in adolescent girls' close friendships as a potential consideration for interpersonally-centered therapeutic approaches.

Emotion Regulation with Parents and Friends and Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior

This study examined adolescents’ self-reported use of emotion regulation strategies with parents and friends in relation to internalizing and externalizing behavior. A total of 185 children aged 13–14 years old (91 girls, 94 boys) completed three surveys to assess their emotion regulation strategies with mothers, fathers and best friends. Parents completed surveys assessing adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing behavior. Regression analysis revealed that adolescents’ self-reported ER with mothers and fathers and friends made independent contributions to parent reports of youth internalizing and externalizing behavior. Adolescents who reported engaging in more emotion suppression with friends had higher internalizing scores, whereas adolescents who reported more affective expression with friends had lower internalizing scores. Self-reported emotion regulation strategies with mothers and fathers were unrelated to internalizing behavior. Adolescents who reported engaging in higher levels of affective suppression and cognitive reappraisal with their mothers and fathers had lower parental ratings of externalizing behavior. Emotion regulation strategies with best friends were unrelated to externalizing behavior.

Generalized Self-Disclosure Explains Variance in Outness Beyond Internalized Sexual Prejudice Among Young Adults

Outness, or self-disclosure of sexual orientation, plays a key role in the sexual identity development of LGB individuals and is linked with mental health. Lower outness has been consistently linked with higher internalized sexual prejudice; however, no extant research has explored the relationship between generalized self-disclosure and outness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incremental validity of general self-disclosure to explain variance in outness beyond what is accounted for by internalized sexual prejudice among young adults (N = 387; 46 lesbians; 78 gay men; 49 bisexual men; 214 bisexual women). Self-disclosure explained additional variance in outness beyond internalized sexual prejudice. While outness is related to internalized sexual prejudice, general personality characteristics such as self-disclosure may also play a role in LGB individuals' disclosure of their sexual orientation. These findings suggest that while internalized sexual prejudice is still the primary driver of lower outness, lower general self-disclosure may also play an important role. Closeted individuals may be weighing the risks and benefits of disclosing their sexual orientation, as they would with any other personal information. For those struggling with self-disclosure of sexual orientation, clinicians should attend to internalized sexual prejudice while also noting an individual's comfort with general self-disclosure.

Larger reported impact of stuttering in teenage females, compared to males - A comparison of teenagers' result on Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering (OASES)

PURPOSE

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the impact and experience of stuttering, and attitude to communication for female and male teenagers who stutter (TWS) in comparison with teenagers with no stutter (TWNS).

METHODS

The Swedish version of the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering (OASES-T-S), was administered to 56 TWS, 13-17 years old (26 females, 30 males). An adapted version of OASES, Attitude to Speech and Communication (ASC), was administered to 233 TWNS. The impact scores were analyzed in relation to sex in TWS and TWNS.

RESULTS

Female TWS reported that stuttering had a greater impact on their life than it did on male TWS (on average 0.5 higher impact scores; Hedges' g = 0.87). The differences did not seem to be caused by differences in severity of overt stuttering symptoms. Female and male TWS particularly differed on items related to difficulties in day-to-day communication and affective/behavioral reactions to stuttering. Such sex differences were not as pronounced among TWNS, suggesting that teenage women may be more vulnerable to the negative impact of stuttering than men the same age.

CONCLUSION

Female teenagers report more negative experiences and a greater tendency to use avoidance strategies than male teenagers.

Interpersonal psychotherapy for the prevention of binge-eating disorder and adult obesity in an African American adolescent military dependent boy

OBJECTIVE

Military adolescent boys report similar levels of disordered-eating as their female counterparts. Yet, interventions for the prevention of full-threshold eating disorders in adolescent boys are lacking. Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), an evidenced-based therapy adapted for the prevention of BED and adult obesity, has been studied in adolescent girls, but it is unclear whether IPT might resonate with adolescent boys.

METHOD

The current case study elucidates the use of a 12-week IPT group intervention for the prevention of BED and adult obesity in adulthood for an African American adolescent military dependent boy with reported loss-of-control (LOC)-eating, obesity, and elevated mood symptoms.

RESULTS

LOC-eating and body mass index metrics decreased immediately post-intervention and further decreased by one-year follow-up. Social functioning scores improved and anxiety and depression scores decreased from baseline to one-year follow-up. In contrast to previous observations among girls, these improvements were evidenced without the teen's explicit acknowledgement of the link between mood and eating behaviors.

DISCUSSION

Although the mechanism of change may manifest differently than for girls, adapted IPT may be an effective intervention strategy for adolescent boys with LOC-eating and obesity who endorse elevated mood symptoms.

Romantic Conflict Narratives in Emerging Adult Couples: Viewpoint and Gender Matter

Healthy romantic relationships entail understanding the needs of the self and other when interpreting conflict events. Yet how couples make meaning around specific conflicts and their capacity to reflect on their own and their partners' unmet needs is understudied. Using narratives, we examined destructive (e.g., extreme anger and break-up anxiety) and constructive (e.g., perspective taking) interpretations of past romantic conflicts in 80 emerging adult heterosexual couples and the extent to which such interpretations varied by viewpoint and gender. Couple members were interviewed separately about two conflict episodes in which their partner did not meet their needs (victim viewpoint) and two episodes in which they did not meet their partners' needs (perpetrator viewpoint). As anticipated, destructive interpretations were more evident in the victim viewpoint and for female couple members. In contrast, within constructive interpretations, the use of insight was greater in the perpetrator than the victim viewpoint. Although perspective taking was expected to be more common in the perpetrator viewpoint and in female narratives, this was not the case, as this type of constructive interpretation was infrequent in narratives about conflict. The findings revealed aspects of meaning making that might be useful to mental health professionals concerned with building skills to improve romantic competence in emerging adult couples.

Longitudinal Patterns in Parent and Friend Emotion Socialization: Associations With Adolescent Emotion Regulation

Adolescents learn about emotions through interacting with parents and friends, though there is limited longitudinal research on this topic. This study examined longitudinal patterns in parent and friend emotion socialization and adolescent emotion regulation. Eighty-seven adolescents reported on parent and friend emotion socialization. Parents reported on adolescent emotion regulation. Parents' responses were stable over time and across gender. Friends of girls reciprocated negative emotions more and were less punitive over time, whereas friends of boys increased in comforting and decreased in neglect of negative emotions. Parents and friends evidenced unique effects on adolescent emotion regulation, and the effect of friend socialization responses differed for girls and boys. Future research should examine combinatory influences of multiple socializers on adolescent adjustment.

Trait and Ability Emotional Intelligence in Adolescents With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

Social-emotional impairments are considered core symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Although numerous interventions have been developed to remediate the social deficits in children with ASD, few have been designed to meet the needs of youth. Given research demonstrating relations between emotional intelligence (EI) and social outcomes in adults with Asperger Syndrome (AS), the current study examined both trait and ability EI to elucidate the nature of the EI strengths and impairments in youth with and without ASD. Twenty-five adolescents with ASD and 25 adolescents without ASD aged 13 to 17 years completed measures of ability and trait EI. Findings suggest that aspects of both trait and ability EI were significantly weaker in adolescents with ASD compared with typically developing adolescents. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.

The Protective Role of Friendship Quality on the Wellbeing of Adolescents Victimized by Peers

Although studies on peer relations acknowledge that having friends constitutes a protective factor against being victimized by peers at school, it is not enough for this factor to operate. The quality of these friendships does play a role too. The present study explored the moderating role of friendship-quality dimensions (closeness, support, disclosure, and affection) on peer victimization and wellbeing. 614 young adolescents (4th to 6th graders, 50.1 % girls) were assessed three times over 1 year. Analyses were conducted to determine moderation effects, differentiated by gender. Results showed that only disclosure and support interact with victimization and affect wellbeing, especially for girls. Implications for studying peer relations, acknowledging gender differences, are discussed.

"Mad Scared" versus "I Was Sad": Emotional expression and response in urban adolescent males

Decades of masculinity research have concluded that society places higher demands on males to adhere to norms for low emotional expression; yet, countless studies find that emotional expression is integral to well-being. Unfortunately, this contradiction places boys and men in a tenuous position as they must navigate a bombardment of societal messages about the importance of emotional stoicism and invincibility. For urban adolescents, the situation is more complicated as they encounter environmental stressors that place greater emphasis on projecting a tough façade. Thus, our primary aim was to assess to what degree dyads of close adolescent male friends from urban, low-income neighborhoods are able to engage in emotional expression and response and to explore some of the underlying mechanisms and interpersonal processes. Qualitative findings from our sample suggest that urban boys exhibit a wide range of behaviors when participating in dyadic emotional disclosure and response, including being highly emotionally expressive and supportive in the context of close male friendship.

Validating a Measure of Friends' Responses to Self-Disclosure in Adolescent Obese and Public School Samples

The goal of the current study was to validate a new measure of the friendship self-disclosure process that assesses the likelihood of disclosing a negative peer experience and expectations for friends' responses to disclosure (EFRD) of this experience. Participants for Study 1 were 572 adolescents (age M = 14.82; 53% female; 66% Caucasian) from a public school sample who completed the self-disclosure survey and a measures of depressive symptoms at one time point. Participants of Study 2 comprised 180 obese adolescents (age M = 12.78; 67% female; 58% African American) from an urban children's hospital. The obese sample completed the self-disclosure survey, as well as measures of friendship quality, peer victimization, and depressive symptoms at two time points, 6 months apart. For both studies, 3 dimensions of EFRD were examined: protection, blame, and negative responses. Each EFRD dimension was replicated across 2 samples, over time, and had good interitem reliability as well as convergent and discriminant validity. In Study 2, high rates of expected negativity (only for boys) and blame (for boys and girls) predicted increases in depressive symptoms. In addition, victimization led to increases in depression for obese adolescents who expected little in the way of protective responses from their friends. In contrast, changes in depression were not predictable from victimization for those who expected friends to use protective responses. EFRD are clearly important mechanisms in the self-disclosure process that may serve to protect against changes in adjustment in response to negative peer experiences, such as peer victimization.

Can Neglected Tropical Diseases Compromise Human Wellbeing in Sex-, Age-, and Trait-Specific Ways?

Traits that facilitate competition for reproductive resources or that influence mate choice have evolved to signal resilience to infectious disease and other stressors. As a result, the dynamics of competition and choice can, in theory, be used to generate predictions about sex-, age-, and trait-specific vulnerabilities for any sexually reproducing species, including humans. These dynamics and associated vulnerabilities are reviewed for nonhuman species, focusing on traits that are compromised by exposure to parasites. Using the same approach, sex-, age-, and trait-specific vulnerabilities to parasitic disease are illustrated for children's and adolescent's physical growth and fitness. Suggestions are then provided for widening the assessment of human vulnerabilities to include age-appropriate measures of behavioral (e.g., children's play) and cognitive (e.g., language fluency) traits. These are traits that are likely to be compromised by infection in age- and sex-specific ways. Inclusion of these types of measures in studies of neglected tropic diseases has the potential to provide a more nuanced understanding of how these diseases undermine human wellbeing and may provide a useful means to study the efficacy of associated treatments.

Girls' and boys' problem talk: Implications for emotional closeness in friendships

This research highlights the critical role of gender in the context of problem talk and social support in adolescents' friendships. Early- and middle-adolescents' (N = 314 friend dyads; Ms = 13.01 and 16.03 years) conversations about problems were studied using observation and a short-term longitudinal design. Mean-level gender differences emerged in that girls participated in problem talk more than boys and responded in a more positive and engaged manner to friends' statements about problems (e.g., by saying something supportive, asking a question) than did boys. Interestingly, boys used humor during problem talk more than girls. Despite mean-level differences, there were not gender differences in the functional significance of participating in problem talk and positive engaged responses in that these behaviors predicted increased friendship closeness for both boys and girls. In contrast, humor during problem talk predicted increased closeness only for boys, highlighting an understudied pathway to closeness in boys' friendships.

Children and adolescents who stutter: Further investigation of anxiety

PURPOSE

Despite the greatly increased risk of social anxiety disorder in adults who stutter, there is no clear indication of the time of onset of this disorder in childhood and adolescence. The purpose of this study was to explore this issue further using the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), so that appropriate interventions can be developed prior to adulthood. This is the first time the RCMAS has been completed by children younger than 11 years. Using the same test for both school-age children and adolescents can potentially identify when anxiety starts to develop from age 6 years through to adulthood.

METHODS

The RCMAS was administered to 18 school-age boys, five school-age girls, 41 adolescent boys and nine adolescent girls who were seeking treatment for their stuttering. Participants also rated the severity of their own stuttering.

RESULTS

All mean scaled scores on the four RCMAS subscales and Total Anxiety scores were within normal limits. However, for both groups of boys, scores on the Lie Scale were significantly higher than scores on the other three subscales.

CONCLUSIONS

Experts suggest high scores on the RCMAS Lie Scale are indicative of participants attempting to present themselves in a positive light and so cast doubt on the veracity of their other responses on the test. One interpretation, then, is that the boys were concealing true levels of anxiety about their stuttering. The results suggest why findings of anxiety studies in children and adolescents to date are equivocal. Clinical implications are discussed.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

The reader will be able to: (a) discuss why understanding when anxiety starts in people who stutter is important, (b) describe the function of the RCMAS Lie sub scale and (c) summarize the possible implications of the RCMAS findings in this study.

Effects of sex composition on group processes in alcohol prevention groups for teens

Although most alcohol and other drug prevention programs for adolescents are offered in group settings, little is known about the possible effects of sex composition on group processes and mechanisms of change. Using the Group Actor-Partner Interdependence Model framework, we examined how the sex constellation of adolescent prevention group members influenced youth satisfaction, engagement, and endorsement of healthy behavior during group. Participants in Project Options (N = 379; 61.8% girls; Mage = 16.1; SD = 1.4), a voluntary school-based alcohol prevention program, completed measures of satisfaction at each prevention session and observers rated engagement and change talk for each group. When analyses were oriented toward girls, their personal satisfaction, group-rated satisfaction, and group-level engagement were positively related to having more girls in the group. Similarly, in boys, personal satisfaction, satisfaction of the group as a whole, and engagement in groups improved when groups were composed of more girls. Statements supportive of healthy alcohol/drug-related decision making were unrelated to group composition. The findings suggest that the composition of girls and boys in groups has differential effects on some group processes. This avenue of research has merit for understanding the mechanisms associated with satisfaction and engagement in adolescent substance use prevention programs.

How effective are expressive writing interventions for adolescents? A meta-analytic review

This meta-analysis evaluated the effects of the expressive writing intervention (EW; Pennebaker & Beall, 1986) among adolescents. Twenty-one independent studies that assessed the efficacy of expressive writing on youth samples aged 10-18 ears were collected and analyzed. Results indicated an overall mean g-effect size that was positive in direction but relatively small (0.127), as well as significant g-effect sizes ranging from 0.107 to 0.246 for the outcome domains of Emotional Distress, Problem Behavior, Social Adjustment, and School Participation. Few significant effects were found within specific outcome domains for putative moderator variables that included characteristics of the participants, intervention instructions, or research design. Studies involving adolescents with high levels of emotional problems at baseline reported larger effects on school performance. Studies that implemented a higher dosage intervention (i.e., greater number and, to some extent, greater spacing of sessions) reported larger effects on somatic complaints. Overall, the findings suggest that expressive writing tends to produce small yet significant improvements on adolescents' well-being. The findings highlight the importance of modifying the traditional expressive writing protocol to enhance its efficacy and reduce potential detrimental effects. At this stage of research the evidence on expressive writing as a viable intervention for adolescents is promising but not decisive.

Gender-based relationship efficacy: children's self-perceptions in intergroup contexts

This research introduces a new construct, gender-based relationship efficacy, which refers to beliefs about one's ability to relate to own- and other-gender peers. Study 1 investigated 204 fourth graders (M age = 9.56) and confirmed that own-gender and other-gender relationship efficacy represent distinguishable aspects of preadolescents' social competency beliefs that are differentially related to outcomes with own- and other-gender peers, including outcome expectancies and friendships with own- and other-gender peers. Study 2 provided further evidence of the distinctiveness of relationship efficacy for own- and other-gender peers among 403 seventh (M age = 12.48) and 453 eighth (M age = 13.50) graders and found gender and age differences. Developmental changes and implications for research on intergroup relationships are discussed.