Abstract
During adolescence, interpersonal stressors such as peer rejection pose challenges to emotion regulation. Yet, very little is known about how these transactional processes unfold in adolescents’ daily lives. This study investigated adolescents’ (a) emotional reactivity to daily perceptions of peer rejection, which concerns concurrent changes in negative and positive emotions, and (b) emotional recovery from daily perceptions of peer rejection, which concerns subsequent changes in negative and positive emotions. Because depressive symptoms can compromise effectiveness of emotion regulation, it was investigated as a moderator for emotional reactivity and recovery to daily perceptions of peer rejection. The sample consisted of 303 adolescents (59% girls; Mage = 14.20, SD = 0.54; range 13–16 years) who reported depressive symptoms at baseline and completed ecological momentary assessments of emotions and perceived peer rejection at nine random time-points per day for six consecutive days. Results from multi-level modeling analyses showed that perceived peer rejection was related to emotional reactivity (i.e., higher levels of negative emotions and lower levels of positive emotions). This effect was stronger for those with higher depressive symptoms. For emotional recovery, perceived peer rejection had lasting effects on adolescents’ negative emotions, but was not related to positive emotions. Depressive symptoms did not moderate effects of perceived peer rejection on emotional recovery. This study provides a more nuanced understanding of how depressive symptoms amplify the emotional impact of perceived peer rejection in adolescents’ day-to-day lives.
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Authors’ Contributions
T.H. conceived of the study, performed the statistical analysis, interpreted the data, and drafted the manuscript; E.R. conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, and helped to draft the manuscript; M.I. helped with statistical analyses, interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript; O.K. helped with interpretation of the data and helped to draft the manuscript; R.C.M.E.E. conceived of the study and participated in the design of the study; E.K. helped with statistical analyses, interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
Ha was supported during preparation of this manuscript by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA07031) and a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism (AA022071). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse.
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The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The present study was approved by the Medical Ethical Committee Arnhem-Nijmegen, The Netherlands (2009, No. 285).
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Informed consent was obtained from all parents and assent was obtained from all participants included in the study.
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Ha, T., van Roekel, E., Iida, M. et al. Depressive Symptoms Amplify Emotional Reactivity to Daily Perceptions of Peer Rejection in Adolescence. J Youth Adolescence 48, 2152–2164 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01146-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01146-4