Thesis advisor: Penny Hauser-Cram / This dissertation involves secondary analysis of data from the Early Intervention Collaborative Study (EICS; Hauser-Cram, Warfield, Shonkoff, & Krauss, 2001), a longitudinal investigation of children with developmental disabilities (DD) and their families. The sample includes 93 children with DD and their mothers who participated in the age 10 and age 18 data collection time points of EICS. The following research questions were addressed: What types of friendships and other relationships do adolescents with DD have in their social networks and what individual characteristics predict the presence of reciprocal relationships within these networks? What individual and family-related characteristics predict their loneliness at age 10 and their friendship quality at age 18? Does loneliness at age 10 predict friendship quality at age 18? Do child/adolescent views of the family predict loneliness at age 10 and friendship quality at age 18? Do loneliness at age 10 and friendship quality at age 18 predict adolescent social-emotional well-being? Do child/adolescent views of the family moderate the relationship between loneliness at age 10 and adolescent well-being, or the relationship between friendship quality at age 18 and adolescent well-being? Results revealed the limited nature of adolescents' friendships and peer relationships, particularly in regard to a lack of reciprocal relationships with same-age, non-familial peers. Behavior problems emerged as a significant predictor of loneliness at age 10, while autonomy emerged as a significant predictor of perceived friendship quality in adolescence. Loneliness at age 10 was not found to relate to friendship quality at age 18. Age 10 loneliness and age 18 friendship quality were found to significantly predict adolescent well-being. Adolescent views of the family were found to significantly predict adolescent perceived friendship quality; additionally, adolescent views of the family were found to relate to adolescent well-being outcomes. Overall, the findings support the notion that both family and peer relationships have an impact on social-emotional well-being for children and adolescents with DD. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology.

Thesis advisor: James R. Mahalik / Objectives. Adolescent friendships play a particularly critical role in one’s physical, social, and emotional development. Difficult, inequitable, friendships in late adolescence and young adulthood are particularly concerning as the experience one has in these formative friendships can negatively impact one’s physical and psychological development (Ehrlich, Hoyt, Sumner, McDade, & Adam, 2015; Engels & Bogt, 2001; Hartup, 1996; Parker, Rubin, Erath, Wojslawowicz, & Buskirk, 2006). The goal of this dissertation was to examine one particular type of problematic and inequitable peer relationship experienced in late adolescence and young adulthood, colloquially termed a “high-maintenance” friendship. Specifically, this study examined the association between high-maintenance friendships and social emotional adjustment in late adolescents and young adults in a college setting and had four overarching purposes. First, it provided a preliminary definition for the construct of high-maintenance friendships among late adolescents and young adults in a college setting. Second, it explored late adolescents’ and young adults’ beliefs around why they have stayed in friendships that were high-maintenance. Third, the study applied the principles of interdependence theory to high-maintenance friendships and examined whether individual-level factors such as self-esteem, behavioral expectations, attachment style, loneliness, and gender were linked to the likelihood that one will stay in a high-maintenance friendship. Fourth, the study explored whether the degree to which a high-maintenance friendship impacted one’s emotional well-being (i.e., making them upset) was associated with one’s likelihood of staying in the high-maintenance friendship. Method. Participants were 256 late adolescents and young adults from a mid-size, elite, private university in the Northeastern United States (Mage = 19.09 years; 53.1% female). A mixed method, two-phase, exploratory, sequential design was implemented across two phases. The first phase implemented a qualitative content analysis in an effort to identify, develop, and define the construct high-maintenance friendships. The second phase of the study utilized a series of hierarchical linear regression analyses to explore the relationships between individual level characteristics and one’s likelihood of staying in high-maintenance friendships. Results. Qualitative analyses yielded a three-factor model, suggesting that late adolescents and young adults conceptualize the most salient characteristics of a high-maintenance friendship as: 1. one sidedness, 2. requiring substantial effort, and 3. general high expectations. Additionally, qualitative analyses generated a four-factor model of environmental obstacles that late adolescents and young adults recognized as why they stayed in a high-maintenance friendship: 1. positive friendship qualities, 2. shared experiences, 3. shared contexts, and 4. decrease in high-maintenance behavior over time. Quantitative analyses challenged the study’s hypotheses and indicated that lower levels of emotional closeness expectations and lower levels of avoidant attachment style predict to increased likelihood of staying in a cross-sex high-maintenance friendship. Quantitative analysis also indicated that the more a participant endorsed that the high-maintenance friendship impacted their emotional well-being, the less likely they were to stay in the friendship. Conclusions. The findings across the four phases of this study extend the current literature on difficult peer friendships in late adolescence and young adulthood by highlighting that: (a) high-maintenance friendships are inequitable, but those who experience social emotional distress in the friendship tend to not stay in the friendships, (b) there may be an optimal level of tolerable inequity which one can have in a close friendship without experiencing social emotional distress, and (c) there may be ways to increase one’s social emotional resilience and to restore an optimum level of inequity, even in problematic, high-maintenance friendships. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Bipolar disorder is an extremely devastating illness, and increasingly robust evidence indicates that it emerges during adolescence. Also during adolescence, peer relationships, particularly close friendships and romantic relationships, become a central mechanism for social maturation and emotional development. The consequences of mania on the development of peer relationships have received little attention. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to examine the association between mania and close peer relationship quality in a community sample of adolescents. Two types of close peer relationships, close friendships and romantic relationships, were evaluated. In addition, the current study examined two potential mediators of the association between mania and close relationship quality, social skills and social dominance. Due to the substantial overlap between symptoms of mania and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and the documented peer relationship difficulties experienced by youth with ADHD, symptoms of ADHD were controlled in study analyses. Participants were 571 adolescents (57% female; 19% 10th grade, 30% 11th grade, 51% 12th grade; 66% Hispanic, 17% White, 7% African-American and Caribbean American, 4% Asian, and 6% mixed or other ethnicity) from 2 public high schools in the Southeastern United States. Adolescents completed self-report questionnaires during school. The Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) was used to assess adolescents' risk for mania. Adolescents reported on their social skills (empathy, cooperation, and assertion) using the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). The Social Dominance Scale (SDS) was used to assess adolescents' tendency to be overly intrusive or dominant in social situations. The Conners-Wells' Adolescent Self-Report Scale (CASS) was used to assess adolescents' self-reported symptoms of ADHD. Parent-report was obtained for 50 adolescents by phone interview. Parent-reported symptoms of mania, social skills, and symptoms of ADHD were assessed. Four hypotheses guided study analyses. First, it was expected that greater levels of mania would be associated with fewer positive qualities and more negative qualities in a close friendship and romantic relationship. Second, it was hypothesized that more symptoms of mania would be associated with poorer social skills and greater levels of social dominance. Third, social skills and social dominance were expected to mediate the association between mania and close relationshp quality. Fourth, it was expected that the hypothesized relationships between mania, social skills, social dominance, and close relationship quality would remain significant after controlling for the association between mania and symptoms of ADHD. Gender was examined as a moderator in the main study analyses. Ethnicity and age were used as control variables. Data analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling with Mplus. Gender was found to be a moderator, and so all study analyses were examined separately for boys and girls. All adolescents reported having at least one close friend. Fifty-four percent (n = 307) of adolescents reported having a romantic partner. Analyses examining qualities of adolescents' romantic relationships were conducted using only those adolescents who reported having a romantic partner. In terms of the first hypothesis, for boys, higher levels of mania were directly associated with more positive qualities in a close friendship, and were also indirectly associated with more positive qualities in both a close friendship and romantic relationship. For girls, higher levels of mania were indirectly associated with more positive qualities in a close friendship, fewer negative qualities in both a close friendship and romantic relationship, and also more negative qualities in both a close friendship and romantic relationship. In terms of the second hypothesis, higher levels of mania were associated with greater empathy for both boys and girls. Higher levels of mania were also associated with more social dominance for both boys and girls. In terms of the third hypothesis, for boys, empathy mediated the association between mania and more positive qualities in a close friendship and romantic relationship. For girls, empathy mediated the association between mania and more positive qualities in a close friendship, and also mediated the association between mania and fewer negative qualities in a close friendship and romantic relationship. For girls, assertion also mediated the association between mania and fewer negative qualities in a close friendship. Finally, for girls, social dominance mediated the association between mania and more negative qualities in both a close friendship and romantic relationship. With regard to the fourth hypothesis, despite significant associations with some study variables, the associations described above remained significant with symptoms of ADHD entered as a control variable in the models. Findings suggest that empathy is an important strength associated with risk for mania in both boys and girls. Through empathy, close friendship and romantic relationship quality was positively associated with risk for mania in boys and girls. Social dominance was also strongly associated with risk for mania in both boys and girls, indicating that social dominance might be one way to differentiate emerging mania from other disorders, such as ADHD, in adolescents. Social dominance, however, was only associated with relationship quality for girls, and specifically, was associated with more negative qualities in both close friendships and romantic relationships. This may be one area, therefore, that girls at-risk for mania might be able to target in order to improve peer relationships. Future research might examine these associations longitudinally in order to determine causality. Additionally, studying close peer relationship quality in adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder would be of interest in future research.

Objective: The current study examined conceptions of adulthood, close personal relationships, and health behaviors (dietary intake, substance use, sexual behaviors) of emerging adults aged 18-30 with horizontally-infected HIV. Emerging adults were expected to differ in levels of achievement of adulthood tasks. The quality of close relationships, and perceptions of close friends’ behaviors were hypothesized to be associated with health behaviors. Method: Utilizing a cross-sectional design, 48 emerging adults with HIV (64.6% female; M age = 22.59, SD = 3.17) from a youth-based clinic serving most of Miami-Dade County were recruited. Participants completed measures on markers of adulthood, close friend and romantic partner qualities, health behaviors, and perceptions of close peers’ health behaviors using Filemaker technology on laptops; audio computer-assisted self-interview options were available. Results: The domains of individualism and family capacities received the highest mean ratings of importance for marking adulthood. Participants rated the acceptance of responsibility for one’s actions and making independent choices as being most important for being considered an adult; other items rated highly were related to emotional control and adopting new family roles. In the domain of peer relationships, participants who had a close friend or romantic partner generally reported high levels of positive qualities in the friendship that were comparable to national samples; however, most individuals had not disclosed their HIV status to their best friend or romantic partner. A number of emerging adults (12.5%) reported having no friends, which is a higher percentage of friendless individuals than national samples. Most emerging adults with HIV reported consumption of fewer fruits and vegetables than national recommendations. In addition, comparable to rates found among adolescents and emerging adults without HIV, participants were engaged in substance use and risky sexual practices such as having multiple sexual partners. Conclusions: There was considerable variability in development among emerging adults. Conceptions of adulthood and peer relationships may be a particularly important aspect of development to examine among emerging adults with HIV. In addition, many of these individuals continue to engage in health risk behaviors that may require intervention efforts geared specifically to their developmental stage. Implications for care providers are discussed.

This multi-method study provides detailed information about the friendships of 87 children with ADHD (77.0% boys) and 46 comparison children (73.9% boys) between the ages of 7 and 13. The methods used in the study included parent and teacher ratings, self-report measures, and direct observation of friends’ dyadic behaviours in three structured analogue tasks. Results indicated that, in contrast with comparison children, children with ADHD had friends with high levels of ADHD and oppositional symptoms; they perceived fewer positive features and more negative features, and were less satisfied in their friendships. Observational data indicated that children with ADHD performed both more legal and more illegal manoeuvres than comparison children in a fast-paced competitive game. While negotiating with their friends, children with ADHD made more insensitive and self-centred proposals than comparison children. In dyads consisting of one child with ADHD and one typically developing child, children with ADHD were often more controlling than their non-diagnosed friends. Globally, these results were robust and did not seem to be affected by age differences, ADHD subtypes, comorbidities, and medication status. Given the increased recognition of ADHD in adolescence and adulthood as well as the fact that negative peer reputation in childhood very strongly predicts mental-health status by early adulthood, this research may lead to the discovery of meaningful ways to help people with ADHD achieve improved mental health and happiness over their lifespan.

This multi-method study provides detailed information about the friendships of 87 children with ADHD (77.0% boys) and 46 comparison children (73.9% boys) between the ages of 7 and 13. The methods used in the study included parent and teacher ratings, self-report measures, and direct observation of friends’ dyadic behaviours in three structured analogue tasks. Results indicated that, in contrast with comparison children, children with ADHD had friends with high levels of ADHD and oppositional symptoms; they perceived fewer positive features and more negative features, and were less satisfied in their friendships. Observational data indicated that children with ADHD performed both more legal and more illegal manoeuvres than comparison children in a fast-paced competitive game. While negotiating with their friends, children with ADHD made more insensitive and self-centred proposals than comparison children. In dyads consisting of one child with ADHD and one typically developing child, children with ADHD were often more controlling than their non-diagnosed friends. Globally, these results were robust and did not seem to be affected by age differences, ADHD subtypes, comorbidities, and medication status. Given the increased recognition of ADHD in adolescence and adulthood as well as the fact that negative peer reputation in childhood very strongly predicts mental-health status by early adulthood, this research may lead to the discovery of meaningful ways to help people with ADHD achieve improved mental health and happiness over their lifespan.

Group mentoring has received much less empirical attention than one-on-one mentoring and it is not clear whether group programs can be expected to yield similar outcomes or whether the mechanisms of change are similar compared to one-on-one mentoring programs. This study examined the effects of a group mentoring intervention on quality of relationships with parents and peers for 71 program participants relative to a comparison group of 31 students. Further, analyses were performed among program participants only to determine effects of sense of belonging with mentor and mentoring group on changes in quality of relationships with parents and peers. Findings revealed no program effects, yet among program participants, findings revealed that sense of belonging with mentor and group are important in predicting changes in quality of relationship with fathers and peers.

Kränkande behandling och mobbning är ett samhällsfenomen; där det finns människor finns det även kränkande behandling och mobbning. Vad som är kränkande behandling är upp till personen som blir utsatt att avgöra och upprepade kränkningar inom samma sociala forum benämns som mobbning. Forskning har visat att det råder en viss osäkerhet och delade meningar huruvida både kränkande behandling och mobbning kan förekomma inom förskolans verksamhet. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vad biträdande förskolechefer har för erfarenhet av mobbning och kränkande behandling relaterat till förskolan samt om de arbetar med att förebygga mobbning och kränkande behandling på förskolan. Ett delsyfte är att undersöka hur kränkande behandling och mobbning kan yttra sig på förskolan samt kartlägga hur den lagstadgade handlingsplanen ser ut och hur de använder sig av den i sitt förebyggande arbete mot mobbning och kränkande behandling. Metoden som använts är kvalitativa intervjuer eftersom det är människors uppfattningar om vad kränkande behandling och mobbning innebär som har undersökts. Frågorna som ställdes under intervjuerna var till störst del öppna frågor där intervjupersonerna fick svara genom att beskriva och ge exempel. Resultatet visar att det råder delade meningar och en viss otydlighet om vad kränkande behandling och mobbning innebär för förskolan, men resultatet visar även att man som biträdande förskolechef tar frågan på allvar och arbetar aktivt med detta. I diskussion framkommer det att mobbning är ett komplext begrepp samt att kränkande behandling är betydligt lättare att definiera och blir därmed tydligare och lättare att relatera till. Frågan om mobbnings vara eller inte vara har också uppkommit; kan man helt enkelt utesluta mobbning som ord i förskola och skola och istället lägga all fokus på kränkande behandling?   Nyckelord: Preschool, Kindergarten, Relationships, Bullying, Peer Relationships

Transition to middle school is a turbulent time of development in which friends have growing impact on adolescents’ academic adjustment. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the unique and joint contributions of academically oriented and deviant close friends on reading and math achievement, competence beliefs in reading and math, and engagement during the transition into middle school. The sample was 652 (53.4 percent male) ethnically diverse and academically at-risk students. Within-wave associations between peer affiliation and outcome variables were found in the expected directions. Outcome variables were highly stable. The model yielded adequate fit of the data. Contrary to expectations, neither peer affiliation variable (academically-oriented friends or deviant friends) contributed to year 6 outcomes, controlling for year 5 outcomes, nor did the two affiliation variables interact in predicting changes in outcomes. Affiliation with close friends was moderately stable over time and affiliation with learning oriented friends was positively associated with the academic outcomes and affiliation with deviant friends was negatively associated with the academic outcomes. Close friendships may change so rapidly that a relationship between close friend affiliation at any one point in time is not predictive of changes in one’s engagement, competence beliefs, or achievement. Future research that examines peer relationships and academic competencies across a longer period of time and more frequently may allow for a clearer understanding of relationships among peer affiliation and academic outcomes.

<p>Friendship has consistently been found to act as a buffer against psychological maladjustment for healthy youth and youth experiencing difficulties including parental divorce and natural disasters. Less known is the role of friendship may have for females coping with a chronic health problem. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to evaluate the health factors and friendship precursors that may influence friendship, and in turn, how those friendships may predict psychosocial adjustment. A sample of chronically ill females (N = 30) was compared to a control group of healthy females (N = 45) on measures of opportunities for social interaction, similarity to their best friend, social capability, friendship quality, and psychological adjustment. Results revealed that health condition and friendship precursors were not associated with friendship quality. However, higher friendship quality was predictive of fewer externalizing symptoms for healthy girls. Additionally, positive parent relationships predicted fewer internalizing symptoms for both groups of females. Notably, chronically ill girls noted their friendships were higher in punishment and lower in companionship than healthy girls. Further assessment, including objective measures, will elucidate the beneficial processes of friendships and parent-child relationships that buffer youth from maladjustment.</p> / Dissertation