Running With the Pack: Teen Peer-Relationship Qualities as Predictors of Adult Physical Health

Abstract

This study assessed qualities of adolescent peer relationships as long-term predictors of physical health quality in adulthood. In an intensive multimethod, multireporter study of a community sample of 171 individuals assessed repeatedly from the ages of 13 to 27 years, physical health quality in adulthood was robustly predicted by independent reports of early-adolescent close-friendship quality and by a pattern of acquiescence to social norms in adolescent peer relationships. Predictions remained after accounting for numerous potential confounds, including prior health problems, concurrent body mass index, anxious and depressive symptoms, personality characteristics, adolescent-era financial adversity, and adolescent-era physical attractiveness. These findings have important implications for understanding the unique intensity of peer relationships in adolescence.

Keywords: adolescent development; health; social interaction.

Fig. 1

Mediation model predicting adult health (ages 25–27 years) from adolescent qualities (ages 13–17). Key predictors are highlighted in blue. For these variables, solid arrows indicate direct paths; dashed arrows indicate mediated paths. Though this is not depicted, the model also included adolescent-era anxiety symptoms as a covariate. Standardized coefficients are shown. Asterisks indicate significant paths (*p < .05, **p ≤ .01).