TY - JOUR
T1 - Toward an Integrated Model of Supportive Peer Relationships in Early Adolescence
T2 - A Systematic Review and Exploratory Meta-Analysis
AU - Mitic, Marija
AU - Woodcock, Kate A
AU - Amering, Michaela
AU - Krammer, Ina
AU - Stiehl, Katharina A M
AU - Zehetmayer, Sonja
AU - Schrank, Beate
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by a dissertation grant (SC17-009) from the Lower Austrian Research and Education Association (NÖ Forschungs-und Bildungsges.m.b.H.-NFB). NFB had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing themanuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication. In addition, we acknowledge support by Open Access Publishing Fund of Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems, Austria.
Funding Information:
The D.O.T. (Die Offene Tür - The Open Door) team of co-investigators - Adam Barnard (playwright and theater director), João Dias (computer scientist), Marija Mitic (medical doctor & researcher), Beate Schrank (practicing & research psychiatrist) and Kate Woodcock (research psychologist) - grew during a sandpit event (Ideas Lab) organized by the Open Innovation Center of Ludwig Boltzmann Society and facilitated by Know Innovation. The team would like to thank these organizations for their role in its formation. D.O.T teamwork is jointly conceived and led by the co-investigators. The team sees this as a fully meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration. The correspondence about our work should be directed to the D.O.T. team leaders: [email protected] (AB); [email protected] (JD); [email protected] (MM); [email protected] (BS); [email protected] (KW). The authors would also like to acknowledge Tamara Diendorfer, Sylvia Dörfler, Gloria Mittmann, Sally Reynard, Irina Schmid, Verena Steiner-Hofbauer, and Justyna Rauch for supporting screening, data extraction and risk of bias analyses. Additionally, we acknowledge support by Open Access Publishing Fund of Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems, Austria. A preprint (Mitic et al., 2020 ) of the paper is available at the PsyArXiv Preprints repository [10.31234/osf.io/kry65]. Funding. This research was supported in part by a dissertation grant (SC17-009) from the Lower Austrian Research and Education Association (NÖ Forschungs- und Bildungsges.m.b.H.- NFB). NFB had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing themanuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication. In addition, we acknowledge support by Open Access Publishing Fund of Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems, Austria.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Mitic, Woodcock, Amering, Krammer, Stiehl, Zehetmayer and Schrank.
PY - 2021/2/25
Y1 - 2021/2/25
N2 - Supportive peer relationships (SPR) are crucial for mental and physical health. Early adolescence is an especially important period in which peer influence and school environment strongly shape psychological development and maturation of core social-emotional regulatory functions. Yet, there is no integrated evidence based model of SPR in this age group to inform future research and practice. The current meta-analysis synthetizes evidence from 364 studies into an integrated model of potential determinants of SPR in early adolescence. The model encompasses links with 93 variables referring to individual (identity, skills/strengths, affect/well-being, and behavior/health) and environmental (peer group, school, family, community, and internet/technology) potential influences on SPR based on cross-sectional correlational data. Findings suggest the central importance of identity and social-emotional skills in SPR. School environment stands out as a compelling setting for future prevention programs. Finally, we underscore an alarming gap of research on the influence of the virtual and online environment on youth's social realm given its unquestionable importance as a globally expanding social interaction setting. Hence, we propose an integrated model that can serve as organizational framework, which may ultimately lead to the adoption of a more structured and integrated approach to understanding peer relationship processes in youth and contribute to overcoming marked fragmentation in the field.
AB - Supportive peer relationships (SPR) are crucial for mental and physical health. Early adolescence is an especially important period in which peer influence and school environment strongly shape psychological development and maturation of core social-emotional regulatory functions. Yet, there is no integrated evidence based model of SPR in this age group to inform future research and practice. The current meta-analysis synthetizes evidence from 364 studies into an integrated model of potential determinants of SPR in early adolescence. The model encompasses links with 93 variables referring to individual (identity, skills/strengths, affect/well-being, and behavior/health) and environmental (peer group, school, family, community, and internet/technology) potential influences on SPR based on cross-sectional correlational data. Findings suggest the central importance of identity and social-emotional skills in SPR. School environment stands out as a compelling setting for future prevention programs. Finally, we underscore an alarming gap of research on the influence of the virtual and online environment on youth's social realm given its unquestionable importance as a globally expanding social interaction setting. Hence, we propose an integrated model that can serve as organizational framework, which may ultimately lead to the adoption of a more structured and integrated approach to understanding peer relationship processes in youth and contribute to overcoming marked fragmentation in the field.
KW - early adolescence
KW - friendship
KW - integrated model
KW - loneliness
KW - meta-analysis
KW - peer relationship quality
KW - peer relationships
KW - social-emotional well-being
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102334816&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.589403
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.589403
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33716860
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 12
SP - 589403
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
M1 - 589403
ER -