Abstract
Emotion socialization by close relationship partners plays a role in adolescent depression. In the current study, a microsocial approach was used to examine how adolescents’ emotions are socialized by their mothers and close friends in real time, and how these interpersonal emotion dynamics are related to adolescent depressive symptoms. Participants were 83 adolescents aged 16 to 17 years who participated in conflict discussions with their mothers and self-nominated close friends. Adolescents’ positive and negative emotions, and mothers’ and peers’ supportive regulation of adolescent emotions, were coded in real time. Two multilevel survival analyses in a 2-level Cox hazard regression framework predicted the hazard rate of (1) mothers’ supportive regulation of adolescents’ emotions, and (2) peers’ supportive regulation of adolescents’ emotions. The likelihood of maternal supportiveness, regardless of adolescent emotions, was lower for adolescents with higher depressive symptoms. In addition, peers were less likely to up-regulate adolescent positive emotions at higher levels of adolescent depressive symptoms. The results of the current study support interpersonal models of depression and demonstrate the importance of real-time interpersonal emotion processes in adolescent depressive symptoms.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, N. B., & Badcock, P. B. T. (2003). The social risk hypothesis of depressed mood: evolutionary, psychosocial, and neurobiological perspectives. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 887–913. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.6.887.
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. K. (1996). Beck depression inventory manual (2nd ed.). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
Carl, J. R., Soskin, D. P., Kerns, C., & Barlow, D. H. (2013). Positive emotion regulation in emotional disorders: a theoretical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 33, 343–360. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2013.01.003.
Chaplin, T. M. (2006). Anger, happiness, and sadness: associations with depressive symptoms in late adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35, 977–986. doi:10.1007/s10964-006-9033-x.
Cheadle, J. E., & Goosby, B. J. (2012). The small-school friendship dynamics of adolescent depressive symptoms. Society and Mental Health, 2, 99–119. doi:10.1177/2156869312445211.
Collins, W., & Laursen, B. (2004). Changing relationships, changing youth. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 24, 55–62.
Connolly, J., Baird, K., Bravo, V., Lovald, B., Pepler, D., & Craig, W. M. (2015). Adolescents’ use of affiliative and aggressive strategies during conflict with romantic partners and best-friends. The European Journal of Developmental Psychology. doi:10.1080/17405629.2015.1066244.
Coyne, J. C. (1976). Toward an interactional description of depression. Psychiatry, 39, 28–40.
Cyranowski, J. M., Frank, E., Young, E., & Shear, K. (2000). Adolescent onset of the gender difference in lifetime rates of major depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 57, 21–27.
Dahl, R. E. (2001). Affect regulation, brain development, and behavioral/emotional health in adolescence. CNS Spectrums, 6, 60–72.
Denham, S. A., Bassett, H. H., & Wyatt, T. (2007). In J. E. Grusec & P. D. Hastings (Eds.), The socialization of emotional competence. London: The Guilford Press.
Ehrmantrout, N., Allen, N. B., Leve, C., Davis, B., & Sheeber, L. B. (2011). Adolescent recognition of parental affect: influence of depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120, 628–634. doi:10.1037/a0022500.
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., & Murphy, B. C. (1996). Parents’ reactions to children’s negative emotions: relations to children’s social competence and comforting behavior. Child Development, 67, 2227–2247.
Fabes, R. A., Leonard, S. A., Kupanoff, K., & Martin, C. L. (2001). Parental coping with children’s negative emotions: relations with children’s emotional and social responding. Child Development, 72, 907–920.
Fogel, A. (1993). Developing through relationships: origins of communication, self, and culture. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Fosco, G. M., & Grych, J. H. (2013). Capturing the family context of emotion regulation: a family systems model comparison approach. Journal of Family Issues, 34, 557–578. doi:10.1177/0192513X12445889.
Fussner, L. M., Luebbe, A. M., & Bell, D. J. (2014). Dynamics of positive emotion regulation: associations with youth depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 43, 475–488. doi:10.1007/s10802-014-9916-3.
Gilbert, K. E. (2012). The neglected role of positive emotion in adolescent psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review, 32, 467–481. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2012.05.005.
Gottman, J. M., McCoy, K., Coan, J., & Collier, H. (1995). The specific affect coding system (SPAFF) for observing emotional communication in marital and family interaction. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Gottman, J. M., Katz, L. F., & Hooven, C. (1996). Parental meta-emotion philosophy and the emotional life of families: theoretical models and preliminary data. Journal of Family Psychology, 10, 243–268.
Granic, I. (2005). Timing is everything: developmental psychopathology from a dynamic systems perspective. Developmental Review, 25, 386–407. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2005.10.005.
Ha, T., Dishion, T. J., Overbeek, G., Burk, W. J., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2014). The blues of adolescent romance: observed affective interactions in adolescent romantic relationships associated with depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 42, 551–562. doi:10.1007/s10802-013-9808-y.
Haines, B. A., Metalsky, G. I., Cardamone, A. L., & Joiner, T. (1999). Interpersonal and cognitive pathways into the origins of attributional style: a developmental perspective. In T. Joiner & J. C. Coyne (Eds.), The interactional nature of depression: advances in interpersonal approaches (pp. 65–92). Washington DC, US: APA.
Hammen, C. (2009). Adolescent depression: stressful interpersonal contexts and risk for recurrence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 200–204. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01636.x.
Hankin, B. L., & Abela, J. R. (2005). Development of psychopathology: a vulnerability-stress perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Heller, M. C., & Tanaka-Matsumi, J. (1999). A sequential analysis of depressive behaviors within adolescent peer interactions. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 21, 249–273. doi:10.1023/A:1022829616046.
Hollenstein, T., & Lougheed, J. P. (2013). Beyond storm and stress: typicality, transactions, timing, and temperament to account for adolescent change. American Psychologist, 68, 444. doi:10.1037/a0033586.
Joiner, T., Coyne, J. C., & Blalock, J. (1999). On the interpersonal nature of depression: overview and synthesis. In T. Joiner & J. C. Coyne (Eds.), The interactional nature of depression: advances in interpersonal approaches (pp. 3–19). Washington DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Joormann, J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2010). Emotion regulation in depression: relation to cognitive inhibition. Cognition and Emotion, 24, 281–298. doi:10.1080/02699930903407948.
Katz, L. F., & Windecker-Nelson, B. (2004). Parental meta-emotion philosophy in families with conduct-problem children: links with peer relations. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 32, 385–398. doi:10.1023/B:JACP.0000030292.36168.30.
Katz, L. F., Shortt, J. W., Allen, N. B., Davis, B., Hunter, E., Leve, C., & Sheeber, L. B. (2014). Parental emotion socialization in clinically depressed adolescents: enhancing and dampening positive affect. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 42, 205–215. doi:10.1007/s10802-013-9784-2.
Klimes‐Dougan, B., & Zeman, J. (2007). Introduction to the special issue of social development: emotion socialization in childhood and adolescence. Social Development, 16, 203–209. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00380.x.
Klimes-Dougan, B., Brand, A. E., Zahn-Waxler, C., Usher, B., Hastings, P. D., Kendziora, K., & Garside, R. B. (2007). Parental emotion socialization in adolescence: differences in sex, age and problem status. Social Development, 16, 326–342. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00387.x.
Klimes-Dougan, B., Pearson, T. E., Jappe, L., Mathieson, L., Simard, M. R., Hastings, P., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (2014). Adolescent emotion socialization: a longitudinal study of friends’ responses to negative emotions. Social Development, 23, 395–412. doi:10.1111/sode.12045.
Kopp, C. B. (1989). Regulation of distress and negative emotions: a developmental view. Developmental Psychology, 25, 343–354. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.25.3.343.
Krefetz, D. G., Steer, R. A., Gulab, N. A., & Beck, A. T. (2002). Convergent validity of the beck depression inventory-II with the Reynolds adolescent depression scale in psychiatric inpatients. Journal of Personality Assessment, 78, 451–460.
La Greca, A. M., Davila, J., & Siegel, R. (2008). Peer relations, friendships, and romantic relationships: implications for the development and maintenance of depression in adolescents. In N. B. Allen & L. B. Sheeber (Eds.), Adolescent emotional development and the emergence of depressive disorders (pp. 318–336). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Lamey, A. V., Hollenstein, T., Lewis, M. D., & Granic, I. (2004). GridWare (Version 1.1). Retrieved from http://statespacegrids.org.
Larson, R., & Richards, M. H. (1991). Daily companionship in late childhood and early adolescence: changing developmental contexts. Child Development, 62, 284–300.
Lewinsohn, P. M. (1974). A behavioral approach to depression. In R. M. Friedman & M. M. Katz (Eds.), The psychology of depression: contemporary theory and research (pp. 132–149). Oxford, England: John Wiley & Sons.
Lewinsohn, P. M., Rohde, P., & Seeley, J. R. (1998). Major depressive disorder in older adolescents: prevalence, risk factors, and clinical implications. Clinical Psychology Review, 18, 765–794. doi:10.1016/S0272-7358(98)00010-5.
Lougheed, J. P., & Hollenstein, T. (2011). The co-regulation coding manual. Unpublished manual.
Lougheed, J. P., Hollenstein, T., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., & Granic, I. (2015). Maternal regulation of child affect in externalizing and typically-developing children. Journal of Family Psychology, 29, 10–19. doi:10.1037/a0038429.
Lunkenheimer, E. S. (2007). Parental coaching and dismissing of children’s emotions in family interaction. Social Development, 16, 232–238. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00382.x.
McIsaac, C., Connolly, J., McKenney, K. S., Pepler, D., & Craig, W. (2008). Conflict negotiation and autonomy processes in adolescent romantic relationships: an observational study of interdependency in boyfriend and girlfriend effects. Journal of Adolescence, 31, 691–707. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.08.005.
Mills, M. (2011). Introducing survival and event history analysis. London: Sage Publications.
Mooney, C. Z., & Duval, R. (1993). Bootstrapping: a nonparametric approach to statistical inference. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Morris, A. S., Silk, J. S., Steinberg, L., Myers, S. S., & Robinson, L. R. (2007). The role of the family context in the development of emotion regulation. Social Development, 16, 361–388. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00389.x.
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2012). Mplus user’s guide (version 7). Los Angeles: Muthén & Muthén.
Papini, D. R., Farmer, F. F., Clark, S. M., Micka, J. C., & Barnett, J. K. (1990). Early adolescent age and gender differences in patterns of emotional self-disclosure to parents and friends. Adolescence, 25, 959.
Pineda, A. Q., Cole, D. A., & Bruce, A. E. (2007). Mother-adolescent interactions and adolescent depressive symptoms: a sequential analysis. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 24, 5–19. doi:10.1177/0265407507072564.
Ramsey, M. A., & Gentzler, A. L. (2015). An upward spiral: bidirectional associations between positive affect and positive aspects of close relationships across the life span. Developmental Review. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2015.01.003.
Rose, A. J. (2002). Co–rumination in the friendships of girls and boys. Child Development, 73, 1830–1843. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00509.
Schwartz, O. S., Sheeber, L. B., Dudgeon, P., & Allen, N. B. (2012). Emotion socialization within the family environment and adolescent depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 32, 447–453. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2012.05.002.
Schwartz-Mette, R. A., & Rose, A. J. (2015). Depressive symptoms and conversational self-focus in adolescents’ friendships. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. doi:10.1007/s10802-015-9980-3.
Sheeber, L. B., Hops, H., Andrews, J., Alpert, T., & Davis, B. (1998). Interactional processes in families with depressed and non-depressed adolescents: reinforcement of depressive behavior. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 417–427.
Sheeber, L. B., Davis, B., Leve, C., Hops, H., & Tildesley, E. (2007). Adolescents’ relationships with their mothers and fathers: associations with depressive disorder and subdiagnostic symptomatology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 144–154.
Sheeber, L. B., Allen, N. B., Leve, C., Davis, B., Shortt, J. W., & Katz, L. F. (2009). Dynamics of affective experience and behavior in depressed adolescents. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50, 1419–1427. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02148.x.
Sheeber, L. B., Kuppens, P., Shortt, J. W., Katz, L. F., Davis, B., & Allen, N. B. (2012). Depression is associated with the escalation of adolescents’ dysphoric behavior during interactions with parents. Emotion, 12, 913.
Smetana, J. G., Campionne-Barr, N., & Metzger, A. (2006). Adolescent development in interpersonal and societal contexts. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 255–284.
Stoolmiller, M., & Snyder, J. (2006). Modeling heterogeneity in social interaction processes using multilevel survival analysis. Psychological Methods, 11, 164–177.
Thompson, R. A. (1994). Emotion regulation: a theme in search of definition. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59, 25–52. doi:10.2307/1166137.
Vernberg, E. M. (1990). Psychological adjustment and experiences with peers during early adolescence: reciprocal, incidental, or unidirectional relationships? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 18, 187–198. doi:10.1177/0265407505058702.
Yap, M. B. H., Allen, N. B., & Sheeber, L. B. (2007). Using an emotion regulation framework to understand the role of temperament and family processes in risk for adolescent depressive disorders. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 10, 180–196.
Yap, M. B. H., Allen, N. B., & Ladouceur, C. D. (2008). Maternal socialization of positive affect: the impact of invalidation on adolescent emotion regulation and depressive symptomatology. Child Development, 79, 1415–1431.
Zeman, J., & Shipman, K. (1997). Social-contextual influences on expectancies for managing anger and sadness: the transition from middle childhood to adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 33, 917–924.
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of Grant 430-2011-0264 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
ᅟ
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
This study was conducted in compliance with the requirements of the Institutional Research Ethics Boards, and informed consent/ assent was obtained from all participants included in the study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
ESM 1
(DOCX 65 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lougheed, J.P., Craig, W.M., Pepler, D. et al. Maternal and Peer Regulation of Adolescent Emotion: Associations with Depressive Symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol 44, 963–974 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0084-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0084-x