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Using Add Health data, we examined whether friends' depressed mood in adolescence is associated with later mental health.
Key finding: Friends' depressed mood may increase short, but not long-term, risk of adolescents' own depressed mood and suicidality.
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Depressogenic friendship networks in adolescence: longitudinal associations with mental health into adulthood - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Purpose To examine whether adolescents’ friends’ depressed mood in-school is longitudinally associated with their own mental health from adolescence into adulthood. Methods We used data from Waves I-V of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Participants included 10,769 individuals (Mage = 15.6 [SD = 1.7] years at Wave I, 37.6 years [SD = 1.8] at Wave V; 52% girls; 56% Non-Hispanic White). At Wave I, adolescents nominated friends within their school and reported depressed mood frequency. Friends’ depressed mood was the average depressed mood score across adolescents’ friends. Using mixed effects logistic regression we examined the association between friends’ depressed mood and time-varying outcomes (ego depressed mood, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts) alongside outcomes of lifetime diagnoses of depression and anxiety. We also examined whether associations differed by gender. Results Adolescents’ friends’ depressed mood was longitudinally associated with small increases in the odds of their own depressed mood, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts up to one year later, during adolescence. There was weak evidence this pattern persisted into adulthood or that it was associated with self-reported diagnoses of depression or anxiety. Gender moderated one association: friends’ depressed mood was associated with a small increase in the odds of suicidal ideation in boys but not girls. Conclusion Depressogenic friendship networks in adolescence may increase short, but not long-term, risk of depressed mood and suicidality. Findings have important implications for risk assessment, and targeted school-based interventions.
