Adolescent Peer and Romantic Predictors of Youths ’ Emotion Regulation in Early Adulthood

1. David E. Szwedo, Joseph P. Allen, Joanna Chango, Megan M. Schad, Amanda Hare, Erin Miga, Ann Spilker, Caroline White, Amanda J. LeTard, & Katy HigginsUniversity of Virginia David E. Szwedo dszwedo@virginia.edu This study was made possible by funding from by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Mental Health (9R01 HD058305-11A1 & R01-MH58066) awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator .  Copies available online at: www.teenresearch.org Introduction Warm Engagement from Friends and Romantic Partners (Friend: Teen Ages: 16-18; Romantic Partner : Teen Ages 17-19) Adolescents participated in a 6-minute observed Supportive Behavior Task (SBT) with their closest friend and romantic partner, during which they asked their partner for help with a “problem they were having that they could use some advice or support about.” The warmth scale captures behavior from the partner that demonstrates to the target participant that they care about, value, and like them. The engagement scale captures how much the other person is interested in, paying attention to, and listening to what the teen says. These scales were summed to form a composite scale which demonstrated good reliability for both friends’ (ICC = .62) and romantic partners’ (ICC = 74) behaviors. Negative Autonomy and Relatedness Behavior from Mothers (Teen Age: 13) Adolescents participated in an 8-minute observed Autonomy & Relatedness (AR) revealed-differences task with their mother. Negative AR behaviors from mothers included signs of avoiding or overpersonalizing disagreements, pressuring the teen into selecting mom’s choices, hostility, interrupting, and ignoring (ICC = .73) Seriousness of Romantic Relationship (Teen Ages: 17-19) Teens answered a single question asking them to rate the seriousness of their romantic relationship with the romantic partner participating with them in the study. Seriousness was assessed on a scale from 1 – not very serious to 5 – very serious. • Parents play an important role in shaping youths’ emotion regulation abilities • Supportive responses to emotion predict youths’ emotional competence • Negative responses to calls for emotional support predict maladaptive emotional functioning • Friends become an increasingly important source of intimacy and support during adolescence • Having close friendships is associated with better adjustment • Positive friendships have been theorized to buffer against early negative family relationships for predicting psychological well-being • Similarly, romantic relationships are a normative part of adolescence • They are considered to be among teens’ most supportive relationships • There is some evidence that positive romantic relationships during adolescence predict positive adjustment • However, it is unclear whether positive emotional behaviors from friends or romantic partners may compensate for negative family relationships for predicting youths’ future emotion regulation skills • Additionally, it is important to consider whether friends’ or romantic partners’ behaviors might interact with teens’ perception of the relationship to predict emotional regulation abilities • Positive behaviors from friends and romantic partners will buffer against negativity from teens’ mothers to predict teens’ greater use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies • 2. Positive behaviors from friends and romantic partners will predict teens’ use of adaptive emotion regulation skills more strongly in the context of teens’ positive perceptions about the relationship β = .23 Adolescent Peer and Romantic Predictors of Youths’ Emotion Regulation in Early Adulthood β = -.43* Note. * p ≤ .05 Interaction showing a protective effect of romantic partner warm engagement (greater positive reappraisal strategy use) when youth have experienced negative behavior from their mother Results Hypotheses β = .26* Analyses A series of hierarchical linear regressions were performed using FIML procedures to examine predictions to positive reappraisal: Step 1. Gender and Family income; Step 2. Teen attachment security; Step 3. Negative autonomy and relatedness behavior from mom, warm engagement from friend, and warm engagement from romantic partner; Step 4. Interaction between negative autonomy and relatedness behavior from mom and warm engagement from friend; interaction between negative autonomy and relatedness behavior from mom and warm engagement from romantic partner. β = -.05 Method Participants (N=184) Gender: 86 males, 98 females Race/Ethnicity: 107 Caucasian, 53 African American, 25 Mixed/Other Family Income: median = $40,000-$59,000 Measures Positive Reappraisal (Teen Age: 21) Teens’ use of positive reappraisal emotion regulation strategies was assessed using the COPE. This composite scale assessed individuals’ ability to accept that a difficult experience had occurred and their ability to view the negative situation in a more positive way (α = .78). Attachment Security (Teen Age: 13) Attachment security was included as a baseline measure of emotion regulation ability. Participants were asked to talk about emotional aspects of their childhood relationships with their parents and to recall examples supporting their descriptions. Degree of attachment security was based on the coherence of their responses to these emotional prompts. The Attachment Q-sort procedure was used to determine a continuous measure of attachment security. Attachment security at age 13 demonstrated a significant correlation with positive reappraisal at age21 (r = .19*) Note. * p ≤ .05 β = .02 Interaction showing romantic partner warm engagement predicting greater positive reappraisal strategy use only in the context of a serious romantic relationship Discussion β = -.35** • Positive behaviors from close friendships may not be specific enough predictors of adaptive emotion regulation • Results with close friends may indicate underlying maladaptive processes • Males may have a positive relationship but avoid emotions • Females may have a positive relationship but co-ruminate • Positive behaviors from romantic partners may buffer against early negativity in mother-teen relationships • Romantic relationships may be more like the attachment relationships with parents that are thought to give rise to emotional functioning • The context of the relationship may be another important factor to consider in conjunction with partners’ behavior for predicting teen emotional outcomes Note. ** p ≤ .01 Interaction showing an exacerbating effect of friend engagement (less positive reappraisal strategy use) when youth have experienced negative behavior from their mother