Abstract
Emerging evidence suggests that whereas occupying high peer status promotes adolescents’ well-being, feeling dominated by friends confers psychological costs. However, little is known about day-to-day power dynamics of adolescents’ friendships or their acute affective consequences. This 14-day intensive longitudinal study introduced novel daily assessments of friend dominance and friendship clout, examined their associations with mood, and tested anxiety as a moderator. Participants were 195 11th-graders (Mage = 16.48, SDage = 0.35; 66% female). Multilevel models revealed that adolescents experienced worse mood on days they felt dominated by friends and better mood on days they felt powerful and influential among friends. Associations with negative mood were strongest for adolescents higher in anxiety. The findings underscore the dynamic nature of power in adolescents’ friendships.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the adolescents and schools that participated in this research. Thank you also to the graduate and undergraduate research assistants who contributed to data collection, cleaning, and coding.
Authors’ Contributions
H.L.S. conceived of the study, coordinated study design and data collection, developed the hypotheses, performed the statistical analyses, and led the writing of the manuscript; A.D.E. participated in the study design and data collection, contributed to the statistical analyses, and helped draft the manuscript; A.J.H. conceived of the study, coordinated study design and data collection, and helped draft the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was supported by a Small Grant for Early Career Scholars from the Society of Research on Child Development awarded to H.L.S. and A.J.H., and a Wayne State University Research Grant awarded to H.L.S.
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The dataset generated and/or analyzed during the current study is not publicly available but is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Schacter, H.L., Ehrhardt, A.D. & Hoffman, A.J. Daily Fluctuations in Adolescents’ Perceived Friend Dominance and Friendship Clout: Associations with Mood and the Moderating Role of Anxiety. J. Youth Adolescence 53, 537–549 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01906-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01906-3