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Predicting Adolescents’ Adolescents’ Psychosocial Adaptation from Quality of Friends: The Mediating Role of Maternal Concerns (Supported by Grant No: 105K029 from The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey)

Ahu ÖZTÜRK* (Ph.D. candidate) & Melike SAYIL* (Prof.Dr.) *Hacettepe University, Faculty of Letters, Division of Developmental Psychology

Introduction

The Structural Models

Understanding the tendencies and actions in the complicated social network comprising families and peers is one of the basic concerns of the developmental science (Vandell, 2000). The children need to be close behaviorally and emotionally to both parents and friends (Bowlby, 1979; cited. Ainsworth, 1990). Empirical and theoretical approaches manifest that friendship affects psychosocial development both positively (Newcomb & Bagwell, 1995) and negatively (Cairns, Cairns, Neckerman, Gest and Gariepy, 1988). The parents’ beliefs about children have considered substantial effects on children’s socialization (Harkness & Super, 1996).

The structural models framed within the hypothesis that mothers’ beliefs (concerns) about their children’s friends have a mediator effect on the relationship between adolescents’ having positive and negative friendship and psychosocial adaptation (loneliness and aggression) displayed good fit indices (Figure 2).

Although these findings, it has not assessed yet how parental beliefs about adolescents’ friendships may relate to adolescents’ friendships and psychosocial adaptation. The aim of this study was to test whether mothers’ beliefs (worries) about their children’s friends have a mediator effect on the relationship between adolescents’ having positive and negative friends and psychosocial adaptation (loneliness and aggression).

.99 .73

PSF1

.66

PSF2

.61

PSF3

.56

PSF4

.58 .52 .62

1.00 -.21*

Prosocial Friends

.66

.54 CNR1

.96

.19*

Mother’s concerns

.11

.89

.71

CNR2

.81

Loneliness

Aggression

.21 CNR4

DF1

.47

DF3

.37

DF4

Source of Information were mothers’ (concerns about friendships) and adolescents’ (prosocial and deviant friends, loneliness and aggression) self-reports

.61

The Hypothesized Conceptual Model We developed and tested separate models for having prosocial and deviant friends. Although they are correlated (r= -.21, p< .01), they represent distinct aspects of adolescent’s peer group relations. Having prosocial or Adolescent’s deviant friends contribute to Loneliness mothers’ concerns (worries) Prosocial or Mother’s Deviant Friends Concerns about their adolescent kids’ friendships and in turn mothers’ Adolescent’s Aggression concerns contribute to adolescents’ loneliness and Figure 1. The Conceptual Model aggression as indicators of psychosocial adaptation (Figure 1). The models therefore consist of indirect effects or hypothesized pathways within a dynamic parent-child-peer systems perspective with an emphasis on relational processes.

The Measurement Models We used SEM to estimate the fit of the models to the data and strength of the pathways outlined in the conceptual model (Figure 1), using the LISREL program (maximum likelihood estimation and covariance matrix). The assumptions of SEM like multivariate normality and linearity were met using SPSS. Examining the parameters of the measurement model for having prosocial friends depicted that the relationships between the indicators and latent variables were in expected directions and significant except the insignificant relationship between mothers’ concerns and adolescents’ aggression. The strongest significant relationship observed between having prosocial friends and loneliness (r= -.47) and the weakest between mother’s concerns and loneliness (r= .16). The measurement model proposed for prosocial friends fit the data well, [χ2(23, N=297) = 43.71, p< .001, df/ X 2