ATTACHMENT ORGANIZATION AND PATTERNS OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN FRIENDSHIPS PREDICTING ADOLESCENTS’ DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS OVER TIME Joanna M. Chango, Kathleen McElhaney & Joseph P. Allen University of Virginia This study was made possible by funding from The National Institute of Mental Health awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator (Grant #R01-MH58066) BACKGROUND Preoccupied States of Mind Regarding Attachment - Teens’ level of preoccupation was measured using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996), a semi-structured interview designed to probe for descriptions of early childhood experiences - The AAI Q-set (Kobak et al., 1993) was then employed to yield continuous adolescent preoccupation scores Strategies of Conflict Negotiation in Friendships - Close friends’ conflict avoidance behaviors and friends’ use of overpersonalizing strategies were assessed during a videotaped teen- close friend conflict task. Interactions were coded using the Autonomy-Relatedness Coding System for Peers (Allen et al., 2001). - The avoidance scale includes friend behaviors such as giving in easily, deferring to the teens’ opinions and never pushing hard for a position. - The overpersonalizing scale measures the degree to which close friends treated the disagreement as a win-lose situation, referenced teens’ personal characteristics, and used guilt-inducing statements as part of their reasoning. Results also revealed: Main effects for both friends’ use of overpersonalizing tactics (B = 0.18, p < .05) and teen preoccupation predicting relative increases in depressive symptoms over time A significant interaction between friends’ use of overpersonalizing strategies and teen preoccupation, such that friends’ overpersonalizing behaviors strongly predicted relative increases in depressive symptoms, only for adolescents who were highly preoccupied (B = 0.15, p < .05, Total R2 = 0.19) Problems in interpersonal relationships, leading to aversive experiences in social interactions, have previously been identified as risk factors for depression (Coyne, 1976a, 1976b). Little has been explored with regard to specific interaction styles within adolescent friendships, and the current study focuses on adolescents’ close friends’ patterns of dealing with conflict Adolescent preoccupation has been most closely linked to internalizing symptoms, including depression, in past research (Kobak et al., 1991; Rosenstein & Horowitz, 1996). The hyperactivated state of the attachment system in preoccupied adolescents often leads them to be sensitive and reactive to social situations (Main et al, 2002; McElhaney et al., 2006) A promising pattern of findings suggest that adolescent preoccupied attachment interacts with various psychosocial and environmental factors to predict important outcomes (Allen et al., 1998; Allen et al., 2002, Marsh et al., 2003) Research Questions: Does the current study support existing research suggesting an association between adolescent preoccupation and depression? How do particular interaction styles within adolescent friendships, specifically close friends’ approaches to handling conflict, affect teens’ depressive symptoms over time? Because highly preoccupied teens may be overly sensitive to their social environments, how will adolescent preoccupation interact with these patterns of conflict resolution to predict changes in depressive symptoms over time? RESULTS A series of hierarchical regressions using Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) revealed: Main effects for both friends’ avoidance predicting relative decreases in depression over time (B = -0.18, p < .05) and teen preoccupation predicting relative increases (B = 0.17, p < .05). A significant interaction between conflict avoidance and preoccupation, such that friends’ avoidance of conflict was a strong predictor of relative decreases in depressive symptoms, only for adolescents who were highly preoccupied (B= -0.17, p < .05, Total R2 = 0.19). CONCLUSIONS Context matters for highly preoccupied adolescents, such that specific friendship patterns have been shown to influence the course of depressive symptoms over a five-year period. Intense and enmeshing interactions with peers where personal attacks and emotionally charged arguments are displayed may be particularly problematic for preoccupied teens. Adolescent preoccupation does not inevitably contribute to increases in depression. Situations in which highly preoccupied teens feel they have mastery and control over their social environments are helpful in buffering depressive symptoms. These results hold important implications for psychosocial interventions meant to improve adolescents’ mental health through social skills training. METHODS Participants Data were drawn from a longitudinal, multi-method study of adolescent development within the context of familial and peer relationships 184 adolescents (86 male and 98 female) were first interviewed at age 13.4 with their same sex close friends, and the Adolescent Attachment Interview was administered one year later Target adolescents were then re-interviewed five years later at age 18.3 Target teens: 58% Caucasian and 42% minority or mixed ethnic group Measures Self-reported depressive symptoms - Teens’ initial level of depression was assessed using the Childhood Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs & Beck, 1977). - Five years later, teens’ depressive symptoms were then re-assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck & Steer, 1897). REFERENCES Coyne, J. C. (1976a). Toward an interactional description of depression. Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes, 39(1), 28-40. Coyne, J. C. (1976b). Depression and the response of others. 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