NCJ Number
244294
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 42 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2013 Pages: 1299-1307
Date Published
August 2013
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study tested the hypothesis that peer relationships during adolescence predict life satisfaction during middle adulthood, using data from a 30-year prospective longitudinal study.
Abstract
The immediate advantages of adolescent friendships and disadvantages of peer rejection are well documented, but there is little evidence that these effects extend into adulthood. This study tested the hypothesis that peer relationships during adolescence predict life satisfaction during middle adulthood, using data from a 30-year prospective longitudinal study. Participants included 996 (49.5 percent female) eighth grade students from a community sample of Swedish youth. Self-reports of friendship and peer reports of rejection were obtained when participants were age 15. Self-reports of global life satisfaction and perceived relationship quality were collected at age 43 for women and age 48 for men. Path analyses tested a direct-effects model that examined links from adolescent friendship participation and peer rejection to middle adulthood outcomes, and a buffered-effects model that examined links from adolescent peer rejection to middle adulthood outcomes, separately for those with and without friends during adolescence. Strong support emerged for the buffered-effects model but not the direct-effects model. Adolescent friendship participation moderated associations between adolescent peer rejection and adult global life satisfaction and between adolescent peer rejection and adult perceived relationship quality such that peer rejection predicted poorer adult outcomes for youth without friends but not for youth with friends. The findings suggest that the risks of peer rejectionand benefits of friendshipextend from adolescence well into middle age. Abstract published by arrangement with Springer.