Poirier Catherine Serra, Brendgen Mara, Girard Alain, Vitaro Frank, Dionne Ginette, Boivin Michel
a Department of Psychology , University of Quebec at Montreal.
b Ste Justine Hospital Research Centre.
J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2016 Sep-Oct;45(5):655-667. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2014.987382. Epub 2015 Feb 20.
This study examined (a) whether, in line with a gene-environment correlation (rGE), a genetic disposition for anxiety puts children at risk of having anxious friends or having no reciprocal friends; (b) to what extent these friendship experiences are related to anxiety symptoms, when controlling for sex and genetic disposition for this trait; and (c) the additive and interactive predictive links of the reciprocal best friend's anxiety symptoms and of friendship quality with children's anxiety symptoms. Using a genetically informed design based on 521 monozygotic and ic twins (264 girls; 87% of European descent) assessed in Grade 4 (M age = 10.04 years, SD = .26), anxiety symptoms and perceived friendship quality were measured with self-report questionnaires. Results indicated that, in line with rGE, children with a strong genetic disposition for anxiety were more likely to have anxious friends than nonanxious friends. Moreover, controlling for their genetic risk for anxiety, children with anxious friends showed higher levels of anxiety symptoms than children with nonanxious friends but did not differ from those without reciprocal friends. Additional analyses suggested a possible contagion of anxiety symptoms between reciprocal best friends when perceived negative features of friendship were high. These results underline the importance of teaching strategies such as problem solving that enhance friendship quality to limit the potential social contagion of anxiety symptoms.
（a）与基因-环境相关性（rGE）一致，焦虑的遗传倾向是否会使儿童面临结交焦虑朋友或没有互惠朋友的风险；（b）在控制性别和该特质的遗传倾向时，这些友谊经历在多大程度上与焦虑症状相关；以及（c）互惠最好朋友的焦虑症状和友谊质量与儿童焦虑症状的相加和交互预测关系。采用基于521对同卵双胞胎和异卵双胞胎（264名女孩；87%为欧洲血统）的遗传信息设计，在四年级（平均年龄 = 10.04岁，标准差 = 0.26）进行评估，使用自我报告问卷测量焦虑症状和感知到的友谊质量。结果表明，与rGE一致，具有强烈焦虑遗传倾向的儿童比结交非焦虑朋友的儿童更有可能结交焦虑的朋友。此外，在控制其焦虑的遗传风险后，结交焦虑朋友的儿童比结交非焦虑朋友的儿童表现出更高水平的焦虑症状，但与没有互惠朋友的儿童没有差异。进一步分析表明，当感知到友谊的负面特征较高时，互惠最好朋友之间可能存在焦虑症状的传染。这些结果强调了诸如解决问题等提高友谊质量的教学策略对于限制焦虑症状潜在社会传染的重要性。
