Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.
Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University/Karolinska Institutet, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.
BMC Psychol. 2016 Jul 11;4(1):34. doi: 10.1186/s40359-016-0143-2.
The importance of supportive social relationships for psychological well-being has been previously recognized, but the direction of associations between both dimensions and how they evolve when adolescents enter adulthood have scarcely been addressed. The present study aims to examine the gender-specific associations between self-reported friendship network quality and psychological well-being of young people during the transition from late adolescence to young adulthood by taking into account the direction of association.
A random sample of Swedes born in 1990 were surveyed at age 19 and again at age 23 regarding their own health and their relationships with a maximum of five self-nominated friends. The response rate was 55.3 % at baseline and 43.7 % at follow-up, resulting in 772 cases eligible for analysis. Gender-specific structural equation modeling was conducted to explore the associations between network quality and well-being. The measurement part included a latent measure of well-being, whereas the structural part accounted for autocorrelation for network quality and for well-being over time and further examined the cross-lagged associations.
The results show that network quality increased while well-being decreased from age 19 to age 23. Females reported worse well-being at both time points, whereas no gender differences were found for network quality. Network quality at age 19 predicted network quality at age 23, and well-being at age 19 predicted well-being at age 23. The results further show positive correlations between network quality and well-being for males and females alike. The strength of the correlations diminished over time but remained significant at age 23. Simultaneously testing social causation and social selection in a series of competing models indicates that while there were no cross-lagged associations among males, there was a weak reverse association between well-being at age 19 and network quality at age 23 among females.
The study contributes to the understanding of the direction of associations between friendship networks and psychological well-being from late adolescence to young adulthood by showing that while these dimensions are closely intertwined among males and females alike, females' social relationships seem to be more vulnerable to changes in health status.
支持性社会关系对心理健康的重要性已得到先前的认可，但对于这两个维度之间的关联方向以及它们在青少年进入成年期时如何演变，几乎没有涉及。本研究旨在通过考虑关联方向，研究年轻人从青少年晚期到成年早期过渡期间，自我报告的友谊网络质量与心理健康之间的性别特异性关联。
在瑞典，1990 年出生的随机样本在 19 岁和 23 岁时接受了自己的健康状况以及与最多五名自我提名的朋友之间关系的调查。基线时的回应率为 55.3%，随访时为 43.7%，共有 772 例符合分析条件。进行了性别特异性结构方程建模，以探讨网络质量与幸福感之间的关联。测量部分包括幸福感的潜在衡量标准，而结构部分则解释了网络质量和幸福感随时间的自相关，并进一步检验了交叉滞后关联。
结果表明，从 19 岁到 23 岁，网络质量增加，而幸福感下降。女性在两个时间点的幸福感都较差，而网络质量则没有性别差异。19 岁时的网络质量预测了 23 岁时的网络质量，19 岁时的幸福感预测了 23 岁时的幸福感。结果还表明，网络质量和幸福感之间存在正相关，无论男女都是如此。随着时间的推移，相关性的强度减弱，但在 23 岁时仍然显著。在一系列竞争性模型中同时测试社会因果关系和社会选择表明，虽然男性之间没有交叉滞后关联，但女性中 19 岁时的幸福感与 23 岁时的网络质量之间存在微弱的反向关联。
该研究通过表明尽管这些维度在男性和女性中紧密交织，但女性的社会关系似乎更容易受到健康状况变化的影响，从而有助于理解从青少年晚期到成年早期友谊网络与心理健康之间的关联方向。
