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BackgroundThe use of oral contraceptives (OCs) has been associated with increased incidences of anxiety and depression, for which adolescents seem to be particularly vulnerable. Rather than looking at singular outcomes, we examined whether OC use is associated with depressive and anxiety symptom trajectories from early adolescence into early adulthood.Materials and MethodsData from 178 girls were drawn from the Research on Adolescent Development and Relationships (RADAR-Y) younger cohort study. We used assessments on 9 waves from age 13 until 24. Developmental trajectories of ratings on the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS-2) and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) were compared between never and ever users of OCs.ResultsNever users showed increases in depressive and anxiety symptoms in late adolescence, whereas OC users showed a stable level of symptoms throughout adolescence. This effect remained after adjusting for baseline differences between groups in romantic relationships, sexual debut, educational level, smoking, drinking, and drug use. Age of OC use onset did not significantly predict symptom development.ConclusionsOC use in adolescence was related to an altered developmental trajectory of internalizing symptoms, in which OC users did not show an increase in depressive and anxiety symptoms in late adolescence, whereas never users did. The question remains whether this altered symptom trajectory can be considered a protective effect of OC use on psychopathology. Additional research is needed to improve our understanding of the long-term consequences of OC use on mental health.

The current study had three aims: (1) to explore whether there is over-time change in adolescent delinquency and negativity in the parent–adolescent, sibling and marital relationships during adolescence; (2) to examine the interactions of negativity across subsystems; and (3) to examine whether levels and changes in adolescent delinquency are predicted by levels and changes in negativity in all family subsystems. Data of 497 families participating in the RADAR-young study were used. Ratings of all family members were used to measure negativity in family relationships, and adolescent self-report was used for delinquency. Multivariate latent growth curve models showed over-time increases in mother-adolescent negativity and over-time decreases in sibling negativity, as well as significant individual differences in these changes. Second, evidence for both social contagion and compensatory processes in family negativity was found. Third, initial levels of parent–adolescent negativity were related to initial levels but not over-time changes of adolescent delinquency, whereas initial levels of sibling negativity were related to over-time changes but not initial levels of adolescent delinquency. Finally, increases in parent–adolescent negativity were related to faster increases in adolescent delinquency, and decreases in sibling negativity were related to slower increases in adolescent delinquency. Implications of these results are discussed.

It is well established that trait neuroticism bears strong links with negative affect and interpersonal problems. The goal of this study was to examine the longitudinal associations between neuroticism and daily experiences of negative affect and interpersonal problems during the developmentally important period of adolescence. Dutch adolescents and their best friends (N = 1,046) completed up to 6 yearly personality trait questionnaires and up to 15 between-year assessment bursts between the ages 13 and 18. During each assessment burst, participants reported on 5 consecutive days about their experiences of negative affect and interpersonal conflict with their mother and their best friend. We estimated a series of multilevel random-intercept cross-lagged panel models to differentiate covariance at the level of constant between-person differences from dynamic processes that occurred within persons. At the level of constant between-person differences, higher neuroticism was associated with more negative daily experiences. At the within-person level, yearly changes in neuroticism were bidirectionally and positively associated with yearly changes in daily negative affect. The most parsimonious, best fitting models did not contain a random intercept for daily conflict with friend and adolescents' contingency between daily experiences of conflict with mother and negative affect. Rank-order differences in these variables were positively associated with subsequent within-person changes in neuroticism. We discuss these results with regard to endogenous versus dynamic theories of personality development and the value of using a differentiated statistical approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

According to identity theory, short-term day-to-day identity exploration and commitment processes are the building blocks for long-term development of stable commitments in emerging adulthood. This key assumption was tested in a longitudinal study including 494 individuals (43% girls, Mage T1 = 13.31 years, range 11.01–14.86 years) who were followed from adolescence into emerging adulthood, covering ages 13 to 24 years. In the first five years, adolescents reported on their daily identity processes (i.e., commitment, reconsideration and in-depth exploration) across 75 assessment days. Subsequently, they reported on their identity across four (bi-) annual waves in emerging adulthood. Findings confirmed the existence of a dual-cycle process model of identity formation and identity maintenance that operated at the within-person level across days during adolescence. Moreover, individual differences in these short-term identity processes in adolescence predicted individual differences in identity development in emerging adulthood. Specifically, those adolescents with low daily commitment levels, and high levels of identity reconsideration were more likely to maintain weak identity commitments and high identity uncertainty in emerging adulthood. Also, those adolescents characterized by stronger daily changes in identity commitments and continuing day-to-day identity uncertainty maintained the highest identity uncertainty in emerging adulthood. These results support the view of continuity in identity development from short-term daily identity dynamics in adolescence to long-term identity development in emerging adulthood.

Developmental changes in adolescents’ relationships with parents and friends intertwine, but individual differences in these relationships are likely to emerge as not all adolescents develop similarly. Generalized anxiety symptoms may underlie these individual differences, as these symptoms have frequently been associated with interpersonal difficulties. This study examines relationship quality development with parents and friends in adolescents with low and high levels of generalized anxiety symptoms. A latent transition analysis was performed in a two-cohort five-wave study design covering ages 12 to 16 (n = 923, 50.8% males) and 16 to 20 (n = 390, 43.4% males). About one-third of adolescents with high levels of generalized anxiety symptoms perceived a turbulent relationship with both their parents and best friends, whereas only one-tenth of those with low levels of generalized anxiety symptoms did. Low levels as opposed to high levels of generalized anxiety symptoms predicted a twice as high likelihood to perceive harmonious relationships with both their parents and best friends. Nevertheless, adolescents with low and high levels of generalized anxiety symptoms exhibited similar trends in relationship development. Overall, our findings indicate that generalized anxiety symptoms are not deterministic markers for relationship difficulties as there were plenty of adolescents with high levels of generalized anxiety symptoms that experienced no relationship difficulties across adolescence.

Objective: Advanced parenthood increases the risk of severe neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, Down syndrome and schizophrenia. Does advanced parenthood also negatively impact offspring's general neurodevelopment?Method: We analyzed child-, father-, mother- and teacher-rated attention-problems (N = 38,024), and standardized measures of intelligence (N = 10,273) and educational achievement (N = 17,522) of children from four Dutch population-based cohorts. The mean age over cohorts varied from 9.73-13.03. Most participants were of Dutch origin, ranging from 58.7%-96.7% over cohorts. We analyzed 50% of the data to generate hypotheses and the other 50% to evaluate support for these hypotheses. We aggregated the results over cohorts with Bayesian research synthesis.Results: We mostly found negative linear relations between parental age and attention-problems, meaning that offspring of younger parents tended to have more attention problems. Maternal age was positively and linearly related to offspring's IQ and educational achievement. Paternal age showed an attenuating positive relation with educational achievement and an inverted U-shape relation with IQ, with offspring of younger and older fathers at a disadvantage. Only the associations with maternal age remained after including SES. The inclusion of child gender in the model did not affect the relation between parental age and the study outcomes.Conclusions: Effects were small but significant, with better outcomes for children born to older parents. Older parents tended to be of higher SES. Indeed, the positive relation between parental age and offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes was partly confounded by SES.

Interpersonal theories of adolescent depression assume that adolescent and maternal depression symptoms afect adolescent and maternal perceptions of their relationship quality. However, little attention has been given to examining potential bidirectional prospective associations between both adolescent and maternal perceptions of the mother–adolescent relationship and adolescent and maternal depression symptoms across adolescence. We hypothesized that the longitudinal associations between adolescent and maternal depression symptoms and adolescent and maternal perception of confict and support in the mother–adolescent relationship would be bidirectional. In this 6-year longitudinal study, 497 adolescents (Mage=13.03) and their mothers participated. Each year both adolescents and their mothers completed questionnaires of their depression symptoms and their perception of confict and support in the mother–adolescent relationship. Structural equation modelling cross-lagged panel models were constructed and analyzed. The cross-lagged panel models found bidirectional longitudinal associations between adolescent depressive symptoms and higher adolescent-reported confict and lower adolescent-reported support. In contrast, maternal depressive symptoms were only unidirectionally associated with higher maternal-reported confict, lower maternal-reported support and higher adolescent depression symptoms. Finally, positive bidirectional longitudinal associations were found between adolescent-reported and maternal-reported confict, and between adolescentreported and maternal-reported support. The fndings of this study are discussed in relation to Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depressed Adolescents (IPT-A).

Introduction. Leaving home is a significant life transition that effects both emerging adults and their families. The age of leaving home has been increasing across industrialized societies, and children remain dependent on their parents for a longer period of time. The present study investigated the association between parent-adolescent relationships and timing of leaving home over a timespan of six years: From middle adolescence to emerging adulthood. Methods. Data came from three cohorts of two longitudinal studies (N=1100) in the Netherlands. At the start of the study, participants had a mean age of 16.41 (SD=.71), and approximately half of them (n=547) were male. Adolescents completed questionnaires on parent-adolescent relationship quality. The impact of positive and negative relationship characteristics on timing of leaving home were examined separately for mothers and fathers. Results. Survival analysis results showed that higher levels of mother’s and father’s warmth, and higher levels of power attributed to father, but not mother, predicted later timing of leaving home. Higher levels of parental autonomy support predicted earlier timing of leaving home. Conflict with parents was not associated with timing of leaving home, except in the father-daughter relationship. Only, the effect of parental warmth on timing of leaving home remained robust when controlling for age, gender, education level, and SES.

This multimethod multisample longitudinal study examined how neurological substrates associated with goal directedness and information seeking are related to adolescents’ identity. Self‐reported data on goal‐directedness were collected across three biannual waves in Study 1. Identity was measured one wave later. Study 1 design and measurements were repeated in Study 2 and extended with structural brain data (nucleus accumbens [NAcc] and prefrontal cortex gray matter volume [PFC]), collected across three biannual waves. Study 1 included 497 adolescents (Mage T1 = 13.03 years) and Study 2 included 131 adolescents (Mage T1 = 14.69 years). Using latent growth curve models, goal directedness, NAcc, and PFC volume predicted a stronger identity one wave later. These findings provide crucial new insights in the underlying neurobiological architecture of identity.

A central assumption of identity theory is that adolescents reconsider current identity commitments and explore identity alternatives before they make new commitments in various identity domains (Erikson, 1968; Marcia, 1966). Yet, little empirical evidence is available on how commitment and exploration dynamics of identity formation affect each other across adolescence at the within-person level. Therefore, the current study (N = 494, Mage Time 1 = 13.3 years) examined reciprocal within-person longitudinal linkages between adolescents' identity exploration and identity commitment making in the interpersonal and educational identity domains. For this purpose, we constructed a multilevel type cross-lagged panel model from early to late adolescence (i.e., across 5 successive years). Results supported Erikson's (1968) hypothesis that adolescents reconsider current identity commitments and explore alternatives before they make strong commitments within the interpersonal identity domain across early to late adolescence. Within the educational identity domain, increasing identity commitment level and commitment fluctuations predicted less identity reconsideration over time. Our findings support identity theory, but indicate that the processes of identity formation might differ depending on the identity domain. (PsycINFO Database Record

The present study examined the role of person–group dissimilarity in personality in peer victimization. It was hypothesized that adolescents who show more deviation from the classroom norm in personality experience more peer victimization. Data from 1108 adolescents (48% boys; Mage = 13.56 years, SD = 1.13) from 54 classrooms were used to test this hypothesis. Data included measurements of self–reported and bully–disclosed victimization and Big Five and Dark Triad personality traits. Results of generalized linear mixed models including polynomial equations and subsequent response surface analyses partly supported our hypothesis. Person–group dissimilarity in the shape of personality profiles was related to more bully–disclosed victimization, but not to self–reported victimization. Dissimilarity in neuroticism and Machiavellianism was related to both more self–reported and bully–disclosed victimization. Dissimilarity in extraversion, openness to experience, and psychopathy was only related to more self–reported victimization. Unexpectedly, dissimilarity in agreeableness was related to less self–reported victimization. Moreover, our results also indicated that certain levels of congruent person–group combinations in agreeableness, neuroticism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy were related to more peer victimization. Overall, findings of this study emphasize the importance of considering classroom norms in relation to peer victimization. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

Using data from 2 large and overlapping cohorts of Dutch adolescents, containing up to 7 waves of longitudinal data each (N = 2,230), the present study examined Big Five personality trait stability, change, and codevelopment in friendship and sibling dyads from age 12 to 22. Four findings stand out. First, the 1-year rank-order stability of personality traits was already substantial at age 12, increased strongly from early through middle adolescence, and remained rather stable during late adolescence and early adulthood. Second, we found linear mean-level increases in girls' conscientiousness, in both genders' agreeableness, and in boys' openness. We also found temporal dips (i.e., U-shaped mean-level change) in boys' conscientiousness and in girls' emotional stability and extraversion. We did not find a mean-level change in boys' emotional stability and extraversion, and we found an increase followed by a decrease in girls' openness. Third, adolescents showed substantial individual differences in the degree and direction of personality trait changes, especially with respect to conscientiousness, extraversion, and emotional stability. Fourth, we found no evidence for personality trait convergence, for correlated change, or for time-lagged partner effects in dyadic friendship and sibling relationships. This lack of evidence for dyadic codevelopment suggests that adolescent friends and siblings tend to change independently from each other and that their shared experiences do not have uniform influences on their personality traits. (PsycINFO Database Record

Empathy plays a key role in maintaining close relationships and promoting prosocial conflict resolution. However, research has not addressed the potential emotional cost of adolescents' high empathy, particularly when relationships are characterized by more frequent conflict. The present 6-year longitudinal study (N = 467) investigated whether conflict with parents predicted emotion dysregulation more strongly for high-empathy adolescents than for lower-empathy adolescents. Emotion dysregulation was operationalized at both the experiential level, using mood diary data collected for 3 weeks each year, and at the dispositional level, using annual self-report measures. In line with predictions, we found that more frequent adolescent-parent conflict predicted greater day-to-day mood variability and dispositional difficulties in emotion regulation for high-empathy adolescents, but not for average- and low-empathy adolescents. Mood variability and difficulties in emotion regulation, in turn, also predicted increased conflict with parents. These links were not moderated by empathy. Moreover, our research allowed for a novel investigation of the interplay between experiential and dispositional emotion dysregulation. Day-to-day mood variability predicted increasing dispositional difficulties in emotion regulation over time, which suggests that experiential dysregulation becomes consolidated into dispositional difficulties in emotion regulation. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that, for high-empathy adolescents, conflict was a driver of this dysregulation consolidation process. Finally, emotion dysregulation played a role in overtime conflict maintenance for high-empathy adolescents. This suggests that, through emotion dysregulation, high empathy may paradoxically also contribute to maintaining negative adolescent-parent interactions. Our research indicates that high empathy comes at a cost when adolescent-parent relationships are characterized by greater negativity. (PsycINFO Database Record

This multisample longitudinal study examined the directionality of effects between identity exploration and commitment processes and depressive symptoms across adolescence. We compared two theoretical perspectives. According to the vulnerability model, identity uncertainty predicts depressive symptoms, whereas the scar model holds that depressive symptoms play into identity uncertainty. In investigating both models, we examined reciprocal within-person associations in Study 1 (N = 497, Mage Time 1 [T1] = 14.03 years, comprising five annual waves) and Study 2 (N = 1,022, Mage T1 = 15.80 years, comprising four annual waves). To this end, we applied the random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) in both studies. Results supported the vulnerability model across Studies 1 and 2. Specifically, within-person increasing reconsideration of commitment (Study 1) and ruminative exploration (Study 2) predicted a within-person increase in depressive symptoms 1 year later, but not vice versa. Commitment processes did not predict depressive symptoms at the within-person level. Our findings indicate that maladaptive exploration processes of identity formation play a particularly important role in the development of depressive symptoms at the within-person level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved). ispartof: DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY vol:55 issue:8 pages:1733-1742 ispartof: location:United States status: published

The development of social behavior could be affected by stressful parenting. The mineralocorticoid receptor, one of the two main receptors for the stress hormone cortisol, plays a vital role in adequate responses to stress. Therefore, the effects of stressful parenting on social development (i.e., empathic concern, perspective taking and prosocial behavior) may be moderated by functional genetic variation in mineralocorticoid receptor haplotypes (a combination of alleles). A group of 343 adolescents (44.3% females) was followed from the age of 13 until 24 years. Growth curve analyses showed lower levels of prosocial behaviors and a slower increase in empathic concern and perspective taking in adolescents who reported more stressful parenting. In contrast, relatively higher levels of prosocial behavior, empathic concern and perspective taking were present in combination with stress resilient mineralocorticoid receptor haplotypes. Despite sex differences in social development with earlier social development for girls, no consistent sex differences were found with regard to mineralocorticoid receptor haplotypes. The current study showed that genetic variation in mineralocorticoid receptor impacts the social development during adolescence and young adulthood.

BACKGROUND: Despite evidence of links between depression and violent outcomes, potential moderators of this association remain unknown. The current study tested whether a biological marker, cortisol, moderated this association in a longitudinal sample of adolescents. METHODS: Participants were 358 Dutch adolescents (205 boys) with a mean age of 15 years at the first measurement. Depressive symptoms, the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and violent outcomes were measured annually across 3 years. The CAR was assessed by two measures: waking cortisol activity (CAR area under the curve ground) and waking cortisol reactivity (CAR area under the curve increase). Within-individual regression models were adopted to test the interaction effects between depressive symptoms and CAR on violent outcomes, which accounted for all time-invariant factors such as genetic factors and early environments. We additionally adjusted for time-varying factors including alcohol drinking, substance use and stressful life events. RESULTS: In this community sample, 24% of adolescents perpetrated violent behaviours over 3 years. We found that CAR moderated the effects of depressive symptoms on adolescent violent outcomes (βs ranged from -0.12 to -0.28). In particular, when the CAR was low, depressive symptoms were positively associated with violent outcomes in within-individual models, whereas the associations were reversed when the CAR was high. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the CAR should be investigated further as a potential biological marker for violence in adolescents with high levels of depressive symptoms.

Objective: This study investigates the longitudinal, cross-lagged associations among interparental conflict management strategies and the parent–adolescent relationship. Background: The following three main hypotheses explain how interparental conflict affects parent–adolescent relationship: the spillover, the compensatory, and the compartmentalization hypotheses. A common key aspect of these hypotheses is the focus on changes within a family; they hypothesize what happens within a family when interparental conflict shakes the family’s equilibrium. Although extant research supported the spillover hypothesis, this key aspect was often ignored, and conclusions were based on comparing families with each other. This study investigated how interparental conflict is longitudinally associated with the quality of the parent–child relationship, controlling for stable between-family differences. Method: Data consisted of six waves of an ongoing study with 497 Dutch adolescents (M =13.03, 43.1% girls), their mothers, and their fathers. Parents reported on conflict strategies; parents and adolescents reported on parental support, parent–adolescent negative interaction, and parental behavioral control. Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models were applied. Results: Most associations were found at the between-person level: Destructive conflict was related to poor parent–adolescent relationships. Few within-person associations were found: Changes in destructive conflict only were associated positively with changes in father–adolescent negative interaction. Conclusions: Associations between interparental conflict and the parent–adolescent relationship are mostly due to stable between-family differences. Intrafamilial fluctuations occur in conflict and the parent–adolescent relationship, but these changes do not predict each other

Parent-child relationships change during adolescence. Furthermore, parents and adolescents perceive parenting differently. We examined the changes in perceptions of parental practices in fathers, mothers, and adolescents during adolescence. Furthermore, we investigated if fathers', mothers', and adolescents' perceptions converge during adolescence. Following 497 families across six waves (ages 13-18), we investigated the development of parental support and behavioral control using mother and father self-reports, and adolescent reports for mothers and fathers. We found curvilinear decrease for support and control. Parent-adolescent convergence emerged over the 6 years: those with higher intercepts had a steeper decrease, whereas correlations among parent and adolescent reports increased. This multi-informant study sheds light on the development of parent-adolescent convergence on perceptions of parenting.

Introduction Leaving home is a significant life transition that effects both emerging adults and their families. The age of leaving home has been increasing across industrialized societies, and children remain dependent on their parents for a longer time. The present study investigated the association between parent-adolescent relationships and timing of leaving home over a timespan of six years: From middle adolescence to emerging adulthood. Methods Data came from three cohorts of two longitudinal studies in the Netherlands (N = 1100). At the start of the study, participants had a mean age of 16.41 (SD=.71), and approximately half of them (n = 547) were male. Adolescents completed questionnaires on parent-adolescent relationship quality. The impact of positive and negative relationship characteristics on timing of leaving home were examined separately for mothers and fathers. Results Survival analysis results showed that higher levels of mother's and father's warmth, and higher levels of power attributed to father, but not mother, predicted later timing of leaving home. Higher levels of parental autonomy support predicted earlier timing of leaving home. Conflict with parents was not associated with timing of leaving home, except in the father-daughter relationship. Only, the effect of parental warmth on timing of leaving home remained robust when controlling for age, gender, education level, and SES. Conclusions Our findings indicate that certain parent-adolescent relationship characteristics contribute to the increase in age of leaving home. Parents may be able to prepare their children for a self-sufficient living by balancing warmth and autonomy support they provide during adolescence.

Studies on identity formation focus on various components of identity. However, these components have mainly been studied separately, and researchers in different fields are not always aware of each other’s work. Therefore, this systematic review provides an overview of theories and empirical studies on three key components of identity: distinctiveness (seeing the self as unique and distinct from others), coherence (perceiving the self as similar across life domains), and continuity (perceiving the self as the same person over time). This systematic review focused on the development of these components and linkages with psychosocial functioning. Findings suggest important differences between the three identity components. Therefore, we propose an integrative developmental framework of identity, including all three identity components and their linkages.

Studies on identity formation focus on various components of identity. However, these components have mainly been studied separately, and researchers in different fields are not always aware of each other’s work. Therefore, this systematic review provides an overview of theories and empirical studies on three key components of identity: distinctiveness (seeing the self as unique and distinct from others), coherence (perceiving the self as similar across life domains), and continuity (perceiving the self as the same person over time). This systematic review focused on the development of these components and linkages with psychosocial functioning. Findings suggest important differences between the three identity components. Therefore, we propose an integrative developmental framework of identity, including all three identity components and their linkages.