Attachment theory holds that parental relationships have lifelong effects on offspring social lives. The tend‐and‐befriend hypothesis posits that female friendships among humans evolved as part of a primate‐wide coping mechanism to mediate stress by relying on social support. Here we bridge developmental and evolutionary frameworks to examine adolescent girls’ perception of their reliance on female friendship for social support, how perceptions of parental relationships affect peer relationships, and the extent to which parent and peer relationships buffer depressive symptoms. We predict perceived maternal relationship quality will be positively associated with close female friendships, and maternal relationships, paternal relationships, and female friendship will buffer depressive symptoms. Participants were adolescent girls from a summer science camp (
This study examined the degree to which internalizing symptoms predict adolescent friendship instability. A total of 397 adolescents identified 499 same‐sex reciprocated friendships that originated in the seventh grade (
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10063574
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Research on Adolescence
- Volume:
- 29
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 1050-8392
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 924-937
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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