Social and Emotional Costs of

1
Social and Emotional Costs of One-Sided
Friendships in Adolescence.Lauren Molloy
Joseph P. AllenUniversity of VirginiaWe would
like to thank the National Institute of Child
Health Human Development for funding awarded to
Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator, (R01
HD058305 R01-MH58066) for funding to conduct
this study as well as for the write-up of this
study.
Introduction
Discussion
Results

• Individuals self-attitudes and relational
  schemas have long been theorized to originate
  from past relationship experiences (Bowlby, 1969
  Cooley, 1922)
• Difficulty establishing positive peer
  relationships in adolescence is a known risk
  factor for later adjustment difficulties (e.g.,
  Bukowski, Laursen, Hoza, 2010 Prinstein
  Aikins, 2004)
• Much less known about maladaptive patterns of
  interaction within youths friendships that may
  contribute to longer-term functioning
• What happens when youth experience asymmetry in a
  close friendship i.e., a one-sided friendship
  where one member of the dyad is more invested
  and works harder than the other to maintain the
  friendship?
• Present study examines the hypothesis that being
  in the more invested role in a one-sided
  friendship may have lasting implications for
  adolescents social and emotional development
• Hypotheses
• One-sided friendships in adolescence will predict
  relative increases in internalizing symptoms
  (anxiety and depression)
• One-sided friendships in adolescence will predict
  poorer relational functioning in early adulthood,
  in the form of a) lower self-perceived social
  competence, and b) greater likelihood of
  relational victimization in romantic relationships

• Consistent with hypotheses, findings suggest
  that experience in the more invested role in a
  one-sided friendship during middle adolescence
  may have longer-term costs for individuals
  social and emotional development
• Relative increases in anxiety and depressive
  symptoms
• Relative declines in self-perceived social
  competence
• More likely to experience relational
  victimization in a romantic relationship in early
  adulthood
• Perhaps these experiences come to shape teens
  views and expectations of themselves and their
  future relationships
• Teens in one-sided friendships may implicitly
  learn
• That they are not valued or valuable feelings
  that commonly underlie internalizing disorders
• That they are not deserving of healthy and
  balanced relationships a belief or expectation
  likely to perpetuate the pattern

1. Teens in more invested role in a one-sided
friendship during middle adolescence experienced
relative increases in internalizing symptoms in
late adolescence
2a. Teens in more invested role in a one-sided
friendship during middle adolescence experienced
relative declines in self-perceptions of social
competence in late adolescence
Conclusions

• Findings suggest a significant link between the
  experience of friendship asymmetry in middle
  adolescence and the development of internalizing
  symptoms and later relational functioning.
• Youth who are able to maintain connectedness
  during a disagreement typically fare better in
  their peer relationships and overall well-being.
  Yet the present findings reveal how such efforts
  can be detrimental when unreciprocated.
• Thus, while prevention efforts should continue to
  target the social skills of individual youth, the
  present findings implicate friendship dynamics as
  an important additional target for intervention.
  For instance, teaching youth how to
• Choose and establish healthy, reciprocal
  friendships
• Ensure that ones own needs are being met in
  relationships
• Recognize unhealthy, asymmetrical friendships
• Address asymmetry in a productive, assertive way

Methods

• Participants
• 184 adolescents (socioeconomically and racially
  diverse) followed over a six-year period from
  ages 15-21
• Measures
• Friendship asymmetry
• Age 15 observed teens discussing disagreement
  with close friend, coded for behaviors promoting
  their connectedness (e.g., warmth, validating)
  (Allen et al., 1994)
• Computed difference score representing asymmetry
  between teens and friends behaviors
• Depressive symptoms age 15 self-report via
  Childhood Depression Inventory (CDI Kovacs
  Beck, 1977) and age 18 self-report via the Beck
  Depression Inventory (BDI Beck Steer, 1987)
• Anxiety symptoms age 15 self-report via Beck
  Anxiety Inventory (BAI Beck Steer, 1993) and
  age 18 self-report via the State-Trait Anxiety
  Inventory (STAI Spielberger, 1985)
• Self-perceptions of social competence ages 15
  and 18 self-report via the Harter Self-Perception
  Profile for Adolescents (Harter, 1988)
• Relational victimization age 20-22, romantic
  partners reported on the level of relational
  aggression they showed toward target participant
  (Morales Crick, unpublished measure)

2b. Teens in more invested role in a one-sided
friendship during middle adolescence were more
likely to experience relational victimization in
a romantic relationship in young adulthood.
References Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and
loss Vol. 1. attachment. New York Basic
Books. Bukowski, W. M., Laursen, B., Hoza, B.
(2010). The snowball effect Friendship moderates
escalations in depressed affect among avoidant
and excluded children. Development and
Psychopathology, 22, 749-757. doi
10.1017/S095457941000043X Cooley, C. H. (1922).
Human Nature and the Social Order. New York
Scribner Sons. Prinstein, M. J. Aikins, J.
W. (2004). Cognitive moderators of the
longitudinal association between peer rejection
and adolescent depressive symptoms. Journal of
Abnormal Child Psychology, 32, 147-158.
Thoughts? Questions? Ideas? E-mail Lauren Molloy
at lmolloy_at_virginia.edu