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Abstract
The current study investigated the mechanisms underlying peer contagion of depressive symptoms in adolescence. Five annual measurements of data were gathered from a large (N = 842) community-based network of adolescents (M = 14.3 years at first measurement). Results showed that, after controlling for selection and deselection of friends on the basis of depressive symptoms, peers' depressive symptoms predicted increases in adolescents' depressive symptoms over time. Failure anticipation mediated effects of peers' depressive symptoms on adolescents' depressive symptoms, particularly for girls. Thus, results suggest that peers' depressive symptoms place adolescents at risk of developing depressive symptoms through increasing in failure anticipation.
Notes
Note. Different subscripts show differences between groups for depression separately. Numbers between parentheses pertain to standard deviations. ND = nondepressed, participants scoring 30 or less on the CED; D = depressed, participants scoring more than 30 on the CED.
a,b Different subscripts show differences between groups for depression separately.
**p < .01. ***p < .001.