Abstract

Similarity of Autonomy, Responsive Caregiving and Depressive Symptoms among Same-Sex Adolescent Friends

Stine Linden-Andersen, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2012

The tendency for individuals to be attracted to similar others, the similarity effect, has been widely studied among children, adolescents, and adults and across demographics, behaviours, emotions and personality, and is the focus of this research.
The first study examined similarity in two developmentally relevant personality constructs, autonomy and responsive caregiving, as well as similarity of well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms) among adolescent same sex-friends, nominated disliked peers, and randomly assigned peers. Results indicated that friends were marginally more similar than non-friends in depressive symptoms, but not more similar in autonomy or responsive caregiving. Moreover, adolescents were not more dissimilar to their disliked peers on autonomy, responsive caregiving or depressive symptoms, and there were no interactions between similarity/dissimilarity and gender.
Study two examined potential changes in similarity among friends over time. Specifically, the aim of Study two was to investigate if similarity of autonomy, responsive caregiving and depressive symptoms increased over time, in support of the socialization hypothesis. Furthermore, to illuminate the process of friendship development, stability of friendships was examined.
For depressive symptoms, findings somewhat supported the hypotheses, in that adolescent friends became more similar over time at a marginally significant level. However, in contrast to the hypotheses, adolescent friends became more dissimilar over time in autonomy.
Dissimilarity of autonomy, responsive caregiving and depressive symptoms did not reliably separate those who were in a stable friendship from those in an unstable friendship.
Similarity among same-sex adolescent friends has been suggested to be a function of three processes: selection of similar friends, de-selection of dissimilar friends, and socialization (i.e., increased similarity over time.) For depressive symptoms, modest support was found for the selection hypothesis (study one) in that friends were marginally more similar than non friends, and the socialization hypothesis (study two) since friends became marginally more similar over time. However, findings from study two also challenge the socialization hypothesis by showing that friends became more dissimilar in autonomy over time. No support was found for the de-selection of dissimilar friends, when examining friendship stability.