Affiliation with depressive peer groups and social and school adjustment in Chinese adolescents

Lingjun Chen, Xinyin Chen

Development and Psychopathology, 2019, 32(3), 1087-1095

【摘要】The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of depressive peer group context in individual social and school adjustment in asample of 1,430 Chinese adolescents (672 boys, mean age = 15.43 years) from middle (n = 430) and high (n = 1000) schools. Peer groupswere identified using the Social Cognitive Map technique. One-year longitudinal data on depression and social and school adjustment wereobtained from self-reports, peer nominations, teacher ratings, and school records. Multilevel analyses showed that group-level depressionpositively predicted later individual depression. Moreover, group-level depression negatively predicted later social competence, peer preference, school competence, and academic achievement, and it positively predicted later peer victimization and learning problems. Theresults suggest that affiliation with more depressive peer groups contributes to more psychological, social, and school adjustment problemsin a cascading manner among Chinese adolescents.

【关键词】 adjustment, Chinese adolescents, depression, peer groups