Development of Dyadic Peer Relationships: Friendships and Antipathies

Contains fulltext : 40177_deveofdyp.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)The main goal of the present research project was to explore the development of dyadic peer relationships. To this end, four empirical studies were conducted. Three of them focused on mutual friendships and one on mutual antipathies. A mutual friendship denotes two peers who nominate each other as a 'friend'; a mutual antipathy refers to two peers who nominate one another as 'someone I do not like at all'. Study 1 and Study 2 focused on heterogeneity in friendship and antipathy relationships, respectively, in early and middle adolescence using individual behavioral profiles based on five behavioral measures, namely self-reported bullying and victimization and peer-reported prosocial, antisocial, and withdrawn behavior. In Study 1 three friendship types with two types of friends in each type of friendship were distinguished in both age groups. This differentiation of the types of friendships and types of friends within friendships yielded a finer grained picture of individual differences in psychosocial adjustment. The results of Study 2 highlighted the role of dissimilarity in the behavioral profiles of antagonists in antipathy relationships. Study 3 explored the consistency in friendship characteristics across different friendships over time and examined the prediction of the five behavioral characteristics of new friends that middle adolescents formed after the transition from primary to secondary education. The results yielded evidence for consistency of friends' behavior across different friendships over time. Finally, Study 4 aimed to investigate the neural correlates of social interactions with friends using functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques. Results revealed the involvement of brain structures linked to empathy and emotion regulation and reward processing in interactions with friends and may have offered initial insight in the mechanism accounting for the fundamental role that friends play in positive social development and avoidance of mental disorders like depression.RU Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, 03 april 2008Promotores : Cillessen, A.H.N., Lieshout, C.F.M. van Co-promotor : Haselager, G.J.T.167 p