The Daily Social and Emotional Worlds of Adolescents Who Are Psychologically Maltreated by Their Romantic Partners

The purpose of this study was to examine how partner psychological maltreatment is associated with depression, daily interpersonal experiences, and affect. Participants were 67 late adolescents (17- to 22-years-old). Each participant completed a survey followed by reporting affect, and interpersonal hassles and uplifts for seven consecutive days. Compared to those low in maltreatment, participants in the high maltreatment group reported more hassles with partners and friends, less uplifts with family, and more depressive symptoms. Multilevel modeling showed that adolescents in the high as compared to the low maltreatment group were more interpersonally sensitive (defined as greater affective reactions to day-to-day interpersonal hassles). Results reveal that psychological maltreatment by partners is an especially potent experience that occurs along with greater romantic hassles and more interpersonal sensitivity. The effects of maltreatment were also found to spill over into relationships with friends and families by either being associated with more hassles and greater reaction to hassles or fewer uplifts and less reaction to uplifts.

Face-to-Face and Cyber-Victimization: A Longitudinal Study of Offline Appearance Anxiety and Online Appearance Preoccupation

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Most adolescents and young adults navigate seamlessly between offline and online social environments, and interactions in each environment brings with it...     

Stability,Change and Individual Differences in Involvement with Friends and Romantic Partners Among Adolescent Females

The initiation of romantic relationships is a normative developmental task among female adolescents. Friendships with other females may change as part of this task. Using structured interviews, this study collected data from 102 white females (ages 17 to 19) about their history of close peer relationships during high school. Trajectories of involvement (time spent) with close peers were examined using individual growth modeling. Females who increased time with romantic partners more rapidly also decreased time with friends more rapidly. Although most spent more time with partners than with friends at some time, the timing of this change and patterns of involvement with close peers varied. One-fourth of females spent more time with partners than with friends early in high school, but spent less time with friends than others did. Another one-half spent more time with partners than with friends later in high school, gradually increasing time with partners and reducing time with friends. Other females never spent more time with partners than with friends, and maintained high involvement with friends and little involvement with partners.     

Friends and Education: Identity Patterns across Domains and Associations with Emotion Dysregulation and Identity Disturbance

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - The task of identity development, which involves distinguishing who one is, and defining and articulating this to others, is a challenging developmental task for...