The differential impact of parent and peer-related interpersonal stress on risk for psychopathology: An examination across three timescales

***This is a draft preprint meant to solicit input from the broader scientific community prior to finalization and is thus subject to substantial changes before publication.*** Adolescence is a developmental period, during which peer relationships and interactions become more influential. Existing literature on the effects of relationship quality on mental health outcomes, however, has found that family relationships have robust effects on internalizing symptoms, and peer relationships have an inconsistent impact depending on measures and study design. This has led to a narrative that familial relationships remain the primary interpersonal factor in emerging psychopathology throughout adolescence even though this inferred difference between family and peer environments has never been directly tested. In the present series of three studies, we examined how family and peer relationships separately influence concurrent and prospective internalizing symptoms during adolescence. With a coordinated methodological approach across two independent samples, we utilized multiple types of measurements to analyze the impact these interpersonal domains across complementary timescales (yearly, monthly, and within-day) in two different samples. Study 1 relied on a sample of 169 male and female participants, 8-17 years old, and Studies 2 and 3 relied on a sample of 30 females, who were 15-17 years old. We used linear regression and mixed-effect modeling to examine the comparative between- and within-person effects of family versus peer stress on depression and anxiety, while controlling for other forms of stress. We found that stress from family relationships has consistent between- and within-person effects on internalizing outcomes at all time scales, and often times this leads to family stress being significantly more influential than peer stress. This pattern is not always true, though, as individual difference in episodic (event-based) stress from peers shows a pattern of being more influential on internalizing symptoms than differences in episodic family stress. Subsequently peer environments appear to affect psychopathology more through via episodic stressors like conflicts and arguments than on chronic indicators of status among peers. Finally, unexpected patterns related to whether objective and self-report stress measures were used suggest that within-person effects of episodic interpersonal stress potentially function largely through individuals’ perceptions instead of the objective situation.

Effects of Maternal Depression and Mother–Child Relationship Quality in Early Childhood on Neural Reactivity to Rejection and Peer Stress in Adolescence: A 9-Year Longitudinal Study

Problems in mother–child relationships are thought to be key to the intergenerational transmission of depression. To evaluate neural and behavioral processes involved in these pathways, we tested effects of maternal depression and maternal-child relationship quality in early childhood on neural and interviewer-based indicators of social processes in adolescence. At age 3, children and mothers ( N = 332) completed an observational parenting measure and diagnostic interviews with mothers. At age 12, adolescents completed a task in which event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to peer acceptance and rejection feedback and interviews to assess peer stress. Lower mother–child relationship quality at age 3 was associated with enhanced reactivity to rejection, as measured by N1, and greater peer stress at age 12. Indirect effects of maternal depression through mother–child relationship quality were observed for N1 and peer stress. Findings inform understanding of disruptions in social functioning that are likely to be relevant to the intergenerational transmission of depression.

Stress and self-esteem among nursing students at private medical college, Chitwan

Background: Stress and self-esteem are common issues that everyone has to cope with at some time in their lives and they could also affect other things going on in a person’s’ life. The objective of the study is to identify the stress and self-esteem among nursing students. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among B.Sc. Nursing students, Chitwan Medical College. The data was collected by us­ing structured questionnaire within 2 weeks. Obtained data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 16.0. Descriptive statistics (mean, frequency, percentage and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (chi-square and correlation) were used for data analysis. Results: Out of 116 respondents, 23.3%, 25.9%, 25.9% and 25.0% were from first, second, third and fourth year respectively. More than half i.e. 50.9% of the respondents had high stress. Respondents had faced higher (68.1%) in teacher related stress followed by peer stress 67.2% and self-inflict 66.0%. About 61.2% of the respondents had low self-esteem. There was higher stress in first year students then other. The fact is that as the academic year increases, students become more familiar to the learning environment and able to cope better. There was statistical significant as­sociation between stress among nursing students and habit of problem sharing (p=0.04). Conclusions: It is concluded that respondents have high level of stress and low level of self-esteem. Therefore, intervention for increasing self-esteem and decreasing stress should be conducted by the college administration.

Developing a Multidimensional University Student Social Stress Scale

The transition from high school to university can be an especially difficult one for students in the Y or Millennial generation. Over the last several years there has been an increase in reported levels of stress and associated health concerns by students (Bland et al., 2012; Oswalt - Riddock, 2007; Pritchard et al., 2007). As a result, researchers strive to measure stress, and isolate the determinants of stress, however many of the existing inventories are outdated. This study is part of a larger study to develop a Multidimensional Scale which will identify those domains which appear to be the sources of stress for university students. Data was collected from 134 males, and 484 females. The full questionnaire included 127 items in total intending to measure different variables which contribute to university student stress; all questions were measured on a five point Likert scale. Survey items related to social stressors were analyzed using a reliability analysis and a factor analysis in SPSS. Additionally, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed using AMOS. Four factors resulted from this analysis and explained 40.96% of the variance in the scores. They were; peer stress (23.89%), lack of confidence (8.12%), parent stress (5.07%) and romance stress (3.9%). These scores on their own were a good determination of four factors which all serve to contribute to overall student social stress.

Maternal depression and trajectories of adolescent depression: The role of stress responses in youth risk and resilience

This study examined the independent and interactive contributions of maternal depression and youth stress responses to trajectories of youth depression in adolescence. Youths (n = 165, M age = 12.43, SD = 1.18) and their maternal caregivers participated in a 4-year longitudinal study. Mothers and youths were administered diagnostic interviews assessing depression, and youths provided reports of their responses to peer stress. Consistent with an interactive model, adaptive responses to stress (high effortful engagement and low involuntary disengagement) buffered the effect of maternal depression on initial levels and trajectories of youth depression, with gender differences emerging. Consistent with a dual-risk model, maternal depression and maladaptive responses to stress (high effortful disengagement and involuntary engagement) contributed additive risks such that youths displayed the highest levels of depression when they were exposed to maternal depression and showed maladaptive stress responses. This research provides novel evidence that responses to stress contribute to individual differences in depression among offspring of depressed mothers, and suggests that responses to stress are an important target for efforts to promote resilience in at-risk youth.