Publications

2024

Szwedo, D. E., Davis, A. A., Fowler, C., Mikami, A. Y., & Allen, J. P. (2024). Social Media Posts from Friends during Late Adolescence as Predictors of Young Adult Physical Health. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-024-01945-4 (Original work published 2024)

Although an increasing body of literature has linked social experiences to physical health, research has yet to consider how specific aspects of social experiences taking place on social media during late adolescence may predict future physical health outcomes. This study thus examined qualities of social media posts received from peers at age 21 as predictors of participants’ physical health (e.g., Interleukin-6 (inflammation), sleep problems, problems with physical functioning, and BMI) at age 28. Participants included 138 youth (59 men and 79 women); 57% of participants identified as White, 30% as Black/African American, and 13% as from other or mixed racial/ethnic groups. Posts from friends and participants at age 21 characterized by social ties predicted lower levels of future physical health problems, whereas socially inappropriate “faux pas” posts that deviated from peer norms by friends predicted higher levels of physical health problems at age 28. These associations were found after accounting for factors typically associated with physical health outcomes, including participants’ baseline social competence, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, alcohol use, observed physical attractiveness, and history of prior hospitalizations. The results of this study suggest the importance of both achieving social integration with peers online and adhering to peer norms in the online domain as key predictors of future physical health

Allen, J. P., Costello, M. A., Hellwig, A. F., & Stern, J. A. (2024). Pathways from adolescent close friendship struggles to adult negative affectivity. Development and Psychopathology. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579423001542

This 19-year prospective study applied a social development lens to the challenge of identifying long-term predictors of adult negative affectivity. A diverse community sample of 169 individuals was repeatedly assessed from age 13 to age 32 using self-, parent-, and peer-reports. As hypothesized, lack of competence establishing and maintaining close friendships in adolescence had a substantial long-term predictive relation to negative affectivity at ages 27–32, even after accounting for prior depressive, anxious, and externalizing symptoms. Predictions also remained robust after accounting for concurrent levels of depressive symptoms, indicating that findings were not simply an artifact of previously established links between relationship quality and depressive symptoms. Predictions also emerged from poor peer relationships within young adulthood to future relative increases in negative affectivity by ages 27–32. Implications for early identification of risk as well as for potential preventive interventions are discussed.

Allen, J. P., Costello, M. A., Pettit, C., Bailey, N. A., & Stern, J. A. (2024). Unique Roles of Adolescents’ Friends and Fathers in Predicting Verbal Aggression in Future Adult Romantic Relationships. Development and Psychopathology. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579423001670 (Original work published 2024)

This 20-year prospective study examined verbal aggression and intense conflict within the family of origin and between adolescents and their close friends as predictors of future verbal aggression in adult romantic relationships. A diverse community sample of 154 individuals was assessed repeatedly from age 13 to 34 years using self-, parent, peer, and romantic partner reports. As hypothesized, verbal aggression in adult romantic relationships was best predicted by both paternal verbal aggression toward mothers and by intense conflict within adolescent close friendships, with each factor contributing unique variance to explaining adult romantic verbal aggression. These factors also interacted, such that paternal verbal aggression was predictive of future romantic verbal aggression only in the context of co-occurring intense conflict between an adolescent and their closest friend. Predictions remained robust even after accounting for levels of parental abusive behavior toward the adolescent, levels of physical violence between parents, and the overall quality of the adolescent’s close friendship. Results indicate the critical importance of exposure to aggression and conflict within key horizontal relationships in adolescence. Implications for early identification of risk as well as for potential preventive interventions are discussed.

2023

Lin, J., Namaky, N., Costello, M., Uchino, B. N., Allen, J. P., & Coan, J. (2023). Social Regulation of the Neural Threat Response Predicts Subsequent Markers of Physical Health. Psychosomatic Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000001238 (Original work published 2023)

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Social Regulation of the Neural Threat Response Predicts Subsequent Markers of Physical Health

Lin, Jingrun MA; Namaky, Nauder PhD; Costello, Meghan MA; Uchino, Bert N. PhD; Allen, Joseph P. PhD; Coan, James A. PhD

Author Information

From the Department of Psychology (Lin, Costello, Allen, Coan), University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia; Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior (Namaky), Alpert Medical School of Brown University; RR&D Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology, Providence VA Medical Center (Namaky), Providence, Rhode Island; Department of Psychology (Uchino), University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Address correspondence to Jingrun Lin, MA, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, 240D Gilmer Hall, Charlottesville, VA 22904. E-mail: jl5xg@virginia.edu

Received for publication March 16, 2023; revision received June 25, 2023.

Article Editor: Daryl O'Connor

Supplemental Digital Content

Psychosomatic Medicine 85(9):p 763-771, 11/12 2023. | DOI: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000001238

Metrics

Abstract

Objective 

Social support has been linked to a vast range of beneficial health outcomes. However, the physiological mechanisms of social support are not well characterized. Drawing on functional magnetic resonance imaging and health-related outcome data, this study aimed to understand how neural measures of “yielding”—the reduction of brain activity during social support—moderate the link between social support and health.

Methods 

We used a data set where 78 participants around the age of 24 years were exposed to the threat of shock when holding the hand of a partner. At ages 28 to 30 years, participants returned for a health visit where inflammatory activity and heart rate variability were recorded.

Results 

Findings showed a significant interaction between dorsal anterior cingulate cortex–related yielding and perceived social support on C-reactive protein levels (β = −0.95, SE = 0.42, z = −2.24, p = .025, 95% confidence interval = −1.77 to −0.12). We also found a significant interaction between hypothalamus-related yielding and perceived social support on baseline heart rate variability (β = 0.51, SE = 0.23, z = 2.19, p = .028, 95% confidence interval = 0.05 to 0.97).

Conclusions 

Greater perceived social support was associated with lower C-reactive protein levels and greater baseline heart rate variability among individuals who were more likely to yield to social support in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and hypothalamus years earlier. The current study highlights the construct of yielding in the link between social support and physical health.

Allen, J. P., Costello, M. A., Hellwig, A. F., Pettit, C., Stern, J. A., & Uchino, B. N. (2023). Adolescent caregiving success as a predictor of social functioning from ages 13 to 33. Child Development. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13936 (Original work published 2023)

Adolescent success providing satisfying support in response to a close friend's call in a caregiving task was examined as a potentially fundamental developmental competence likely to predict future social functioning, adult caregiving security, and physical health. Adolescents (86 males, 98 females; 58% White, 29% African American, 8% mixed race/ethnicity, 5% other) were followed from ages 13 to 33 (1998–2021) using multiple methods and reporters. Early caregiving success was found to predict greater self- and partner-reported caregiving security, lower negativity in adult relationships, and higher adult vagal tone. Results are interpreted as advancing our understanding beyond simply recognizing that adolescent friendships have long-term import, to now identifying specific capacities within friendships that are linked to longer-term outcomes.

Costello, M. A., Allen, J. P., Womack, S. R., Loeb, E. L., Stern, J. A., & Pettit, C. (2023). Characterizing Emotional Support Development: From Adolescent Best Friendships to Young Adult Romantic Relationships. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 33(2), 389-403. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12809 (Original work published 2023)

This study examined development of emotional support competence within close friendships across adolescence. A sample of 184 adolescents (53% girls, 47% boys; 58% White, 29% Black, 14% other identity groups) participated in seven waves of multimethod assessments with their best friends and romantic partners from age 13 to 24. Latent change score models identified coupled predictions over time from emotional support competence to increasing friendship quality and decreasing support received from friends. Friend-rated emotional support competence in adolescence predicted supportiveness in adult romantic relationships, over and above supportiveness in adolescent romantic relationships. Teen friendships may set the stage for developing emotional support capacities that progress across time and relationships into adulthood.

Allen, J. P., Danoff, J. S., Costello, M. A., Loeb, E. L., Davis, A. A., Hunt, G. L., Gregory, S. G., Giamberardino, S. N., & Connelly, J. J. (2023). Adolescent peer struggles predict accelerated epigenetic aging in midlife. Development and Psychopathology, 35(2), 912-925. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579422000153 (Original work published 2023)

This study examined struggles to establish autonomy and relatedness with peers in adolescence and early adulthood as predictors of advanced epigenetic aging assessed at age 30. Participants (N = 154; 67 male and 87 female) were observed repeatedly, along with close friends and romantic partners, from ages 13 through 29. Observed difficulty establishing close friendships characterized by mutual autonomy and relatedness from ages 13 to 18, an interview-assessed attachment state of mind lacking autonomy and valuing of attachment at 24, and self-reported difficulties in social integration across adolescence and adulthood were all linked to greater epigenetic age at 30, after accounting for chronological age, gender, race, and income. Analyses assessing the unique and combined effects of these factors, along with lifetime history of cigarette smoking, indicated that each of these factors, except for adult social integration, contributed uniquely to explaining epigenetic age acceleration. Results are interpreted as evidence that the adolescent preoccupation with peer relationships may be highly functional given the relevance of such relationships to long-term physical outcomes.

2022

Shah, E. N., Szwedo, D., & Allen, J. P. (2022). Parental Autonomy Restricting Behaviors During Adolescence as Predictors of Dependency on Parents in Emerging Adulthood. Emerging Adulthood, 11(1), 15-31. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1177/21676968221121158

Although one goal of the use of autonomy restricting parenting behavior is to keep teens psychologically dependent on the parent, research has yet to examine whether such behavior actually predicts later parental dependency. Thus, the present longitudinal, multi-method study investigates at which points across adolescence this behavior predicts parental dependency in emerging adulthood, and whether this association differs based on which parent uses psychological control within a non-clinical and racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse sample. Teens’ (N = 184) parents completed measures of perceived parental psychological control exhibited toward their teens during early (age 13) and late adolescence (age 18), as well as their teens’ parental dependency and functional independence during emerging adulthood (age 22). Additionally, interactions between teens and their parents during early and late adolescence were observed and coded to measure autonomy and relatedness restriction. Results indicated that autonomy restricting parenting behaviors were more predictive of parental dependence when used in early adolescence as compared to late adolescence, and revealed several cross-parent effects. Developmental implications for understanding parent-child relationships are discussed.

Costello, M., Allen, J. P., Womack, S. R., Loeb, E., Stern, J. A., & Pettit, C. (2022). Characterizing Emotional Support Development: From Adolescent Best Friendships to Young Adult Romantic Relationships. Journal of Research on Adolescence. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1111/jora.12809

This study examined development of emotional support competence within close friendships across adolescence. A sample of 184 adolescents (53% girls, 47% boys; 58% White, 29% Black, 14% other identity groups) participated in seven waves of multimethod assessments with their best friends and romantic partners from age 13 to 24. Latent change score models identified coupled predictions over time from emotional support competence to increasing friendship quality and decreasing support received from friends. Friend-rated emotional support competence in adolescence predicted supportiveness in adult romantic relationships, over and above supportiveness in adolescent romantic relationships. Teen friendships may set the stage for developing emotional support capacities that progress across time and relationships into adulthood.

 
Allen, J. P., Pettit, C., Costello, M., Hunt, G. L., & Stern, J. A. (2022). A Social-development Model of the Evolution of Depressive Symptoms from Age 13 to 30. Development and Psychopathology, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579422001183

This 17-year prospective study applied a social-development lens to the challenge of identifying long-term predictors of adult depressive symptoms. A diverse community sample of 171 individuals was repeatedly assessed from age 13 to age 30 using self-, parent-, and peer-report methods. As hypothesized, competence in establishing close friendships beginning in adolescence had a substantial long-term predictive relation to adult depressive symptoms at ages 27–30, even after accounting for prior depressive, anxiety, and externalizing symptoms. Intervening relationship difficulties at ages 23–26 were identified as part of pathways to depressive symptoms in the late twenties. Somewhat distinct paths by gender were also identified, but in all cases were consistent with an overall role of relationship difficulties in predicting long-term depressive symptoms. Implications both for early identification of risk as well as for potential preventive interventions are discussed.