Reciprocal Influences Among Relational Self‐Views, Social Disengagement, and Peer Stress During Early Adolescence

Abstract

This study examined reciprocal-influence models of the association between relational self-views and peer stress during early adolescence. The first model posited that adolescents with negative self-views disengage from peers, creating stress in their relationships. The second model posited that exposure to peer stress fosters social disengagement, which elicits negative self-views. Participants were 605 early adolescents (M age = 11.7). As part of a 3-wave longitudinal study adolescents reported on self-views and stress, and teachers reported on social disengagement. As hypothesized, negative self-views predicted social disengagement, which contributed to peer stress. Stress predicted subsequent disengagement and negative self-views. These findings suggest that adolescents and their environments participate in reciprocal-influence processes that account for cross-temporal continuity in personal attributes of youth and their social experiences.