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.

Adolescent peer relationships matter profoundly for mental and physical health.1 2 Social isolation from peers (ie, a lack of connection) is associated with increased risk of mental health problems an...

We quantitively explored adolescents' concerns about privacy, confidentiality, and data use in health research and their potential impact on the accur…

The Research Fellow will investigate young carers and health inequalities using advanced longitudinal quantitative methods. Responsibilities include data analysis, literature reviews, publishing findi...

The Faculty of Social Sciences, INVEST Flagship Research Centre at the University of Turku invites applications for 1-4 contract-based, fixed term Project researcher or Senior Researcher position from...

Discover an exciting academic career path as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at jobs.ac.uk. Don't miss out on this job opportunity - apply today!

Background From early adolescence, girls face greater risk of experiencing low mood and anxiety relative to boys, with recent evidence that this may be worsening. There is a paucity of mental health r...

“Drink responsibly” messages have not stopped risky drinking. Some say we need cancer warnings on wine bottles and beer cans like we do on cigarette packs.

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted governments worldwide to introduce social distancing measures, including school closures and restrictions on in-person …

Research Associate

As a social species, humans live in complexly bounded social groups. In order to navigate these networks, humans rely on a set of social–cognitive processes, including social working memory. Here, we ...

There is an urgent need to improve mental health outcomes among young people. One approach taken to address this problem has been the design and delivery of universal school-based prevention, based o...

There is an urgent need to improve mental health outcomes among young people. One approach taken to address this problem has been the design and delivery of universal school-based prevention, based o...