TY - JOUR
T1 - The Long Arm of Social Integration
T2 - Gender, Adolescent Social Networks, and Adult Depressive Symptom Trajectories
AU - Kamis, Christina
AU - Copeland, Molly
N1 - Funding Information:
Thank you to Scott Lynch, James Moody, and members of the Duke networks and medical sociology labs for their helpful comments. This research uses data from National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website ( http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth ). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.
Publisher Copyright:
© American Sociological Association 2020.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - Peer connections in adolescence shape mental health in ways that differ by gender. However, it is unclear whether this association has an enduring impact on life course mental health. Using growth models with survey data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health Waves I–IV, N = 13,821, 51% white, 49% male), we examine how two dimensions of social integration during adolescence—popularity and sociality—predict depressive symptom trajectories from adolescence to adulthood (ages 12–32) by gender. We find that for both men and women, low sociality predicts higher depressive levels through adolescence into adulthood. For women, higher popularity predicts greater depressive symptoms in adolescence, followed by a steeper decline to lower levels in early adulthood. Overall, this study suggests that social integration among peers in adolescence has long-term consequences for mental health that vary by gender.
AB - Peer connections in adolescence shape mental health in ways that differ by gender. However, it is unclear whether this association has an enduring impact on life course mental health. Using growth models with survey data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health Waves I–IV, N = 13,821, 51% white, 49% male), we examine how two dimensions of social integration during adolescence—popularity and sociality—predict depressive symptom trajectories from adolescence to adulthood (ages 12–32) by gender. We find that for both men and women, low sociality predicts higher depressive levels through adolescence into adulthood. For women, higher popularity predicts greater depressive symptoms in adolescence, followed by a steeper decline to lower levels in early adulthood. Overall, this study suggests that social integration among peers in adolescence has long-term consequences for mental health that vary by gender.
KW - life course
KW - mental health
KW - peer networks
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U2 - 10.1177/0022146520952769
DO - 10.1177/0022146520952769
M3 - Article
C2 - 32921157
SN - 0022-1465
VL - 61
SP - 437
EP - 452
JO - Journal of Health and Social Behavior
JF - Journal of Health and Social Behavior
IS - 4
ER -