Early Adolescent Friendship Selection Based on Externalizing Behavior: the Moderating Role of Pubertal Development. The SNARE Study

Abstract This study examined friendship (de-)selection processes in early adolescence. Pubertal development was examined as a potential moderator. It was expected that pubertal development would be associated with an increased tendency for adolescents to select their friends based on their similarities in externalizing behavior engagement (i.e., delinquency, alcohol use, and tobacco use). Data were used from the first three waves of the SNARE (Social Network Analysis of Risk behavior in Early adolescence) study (N = 1144; 50 % boys; M age = 12.7; SD = 0.47), including students who entered the first year of secondary school. The hypothesis was tested using Stochastic Actor-Based Modeling in SIENA. While taking the network structure into account, and controlling for peer influence effects, the results supported this hypothesis. Early adolescents with higher pubertal development were as likely as their peers to select friends based on similarity in externalizing behavior and especially likely to remain friends with peers who had a similar level of externalizing behavior, and thus break friendship ties with dissimilar friends in this respect. As early adolescents are actively engaged in reorganizing their social context, adolescents with a higher pubertal development are especially likely to lose friendships with peers who do not engage in externalizing behavior, thus losing an important source of adaptive social control (i.e., friends who do not engage in externalizing behavior)

Using Response Surface Analysis to Interpret the Impact of Parent-Offspring Personality Similarity on Adolescent Externalizing Problems

Personality similarity between parent and offspring has been suggested to play an important role in offspring's development of externalizing problems. Nonetheless, much remains unknown regarding the nature of this association. This study aimed to investigate the effects of parent-offspring similarity at different levels of personality traits, comparing expectations based on evolutionary and goodness-of-fit perspectives. Two waves of data from the TRAILS study (N = 1587, 53% girls) were used to study parent-offspring similarity at different levels of personality traits at age 16 predicting externalizing problems at age 19. Polynomial regression analyses and Response Surface Analyses were used to disentangle effects of different levels and combinations of parents and offspring personality similarity. Although several facets of the offspring's personality had an impact on offspring's externalizing problems, few similarity effects were found. Therefore, there is little support for assumptions based on either an evolutionary or a goodness-of-fit perspective. Instead, our findings point in the direction that offspring personality, and at similar levels also parent personality might impact the development of externalizing problems during late adolescence. (C) 2017 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psycholog

Fractures in pituitary adenoma patients from the Dutch National Registry of Growth Hormone Treatment in Adults

Purpose: The effects of growth hormone (GH) replacement therapy on fracture risk in adult GH deficient (GHD) patients with different etiologies of pituitary GHD are not well known, due to limited data. The aim of this study was to investigate characteristics and fracture occurrence at start of (baseline) and during long-term GH replacement therapy in GHD adults previously treated for Cushing’s disease (CD) or acromegaly, compared to patients with previous nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma (NFPA). Methods: From the Dutch National Registry of Growth Hormone Treatment in Adults, a nationwide surveillance study in severe GHD adults, all patients using ≥30 days of GH replacement therapy with previous NFPA (n = 783), CD (n = 180) and acromegaly (n = 65) were selected. Patient characteristics, fractures and potential influencing factors were investigated. Results: At baseline, patients with previous CD were younger, more often female and had more often a history of osteopenia or osteoporosis, whereas patients with previous acromegaly had more often received cranial radiotherapy and a longer duration between treatment of their pituitary tumor and start of adult GH replacement therapy. During follow-up, a fracture occurred in 3.8 % (n = 39) of all patients. Compared to patients with previous NFPA, only patients with previous acromegaly had an increased fracture risk after 6 years of GH replacement therapy. Conclusions: During GH replacement therapy, an increased fracture risk was observed in severe GHD adult patients previously treated for acromegaly, but not in those previously treated for CD, compared to severe GHD adult patients using GH replacement therapy because of previous NFPA. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to elucidate potential underlying mechanisms

The role of self-control and early adolescents' friendships in the development of externalizing behavior:The SNARE study

This social network study investigated the moderating role of self-control in the association between friendship and the development of externalizing behavior: Antisocial behavior, alcohol use, tobacco use. Previous studies have shown inconsistent findings, and did not control for possible friendship network or selection effects. We tested two complementary hypotheses: (1) That early-adolescents with low self-control develop externalizing behavior regardless of their friends' behavior, or (2) as a result of being influenced by their friends' externalizing behavior to a greater extent. Hypotheses were investigated using data from the SNARE (Social Network Analysis of Risk behavior in Early adolescence) study (N = 1144, 50 % boys, M-age 12.7, SD = 0.47). We controlled for selection effects and the network structure, using a data-analysis package called SIENA. The main findings indicate that personal low self-control and friends' externalizing behaviors both predict early adolescents' increasing externalizing behaviors, but they do so independently. Therefore, interventions should focus on all early adolescents' with a lower self-control, rather than focus on those adolescents with a lower self-control who also have friends who engage in externalizing behavior

Music preferences, friendship, and externalizing behavior in early adolescence: A SIENA examination of the music marker theory using the SNARE Study

Music Marker Theory posits that music is relevant for the structuring of peer groups and that rock, urban, or dance music preferences relate to externalizing behavior. The present study tested these hypotheses, by investigating the role of music preference similarity in friendship selection and the development of externalizing behavior, while taking the effects of friends' externalizing behavior into account. Data were used from the first three waves of the SNARE (Social Network Analysis of Risk behavior in Early adolescence) study (N = 1144; 50% boys; M age = 12.7; SD = 0.47), including students who entered the first-year of secondary school. Two hypotheses were tested. First, adolescents were expected to select friends based both on a similarity in externalizing behavior and music genre preference. Second, a preference for rock, urban, or dance, music types was expected to predict the development of externalizing behavior, even when taking friends' influence on externalizing behavior into account. Stochastic Actor-Based Modeling indicated that adolescents select their friends based on both externalizing behavior and highbrow music preference. Moreover, both friends' externalizing behavior and a preference for dance music predicted the development of externalizing behavior. Intervention programs might focus on adolescents with dance music preferences

Social Status of Adolescents With an Early Onset of Externalizing Behavior:The SNARE Study

This study investigated the social status (i.e., popularity, likeability, and friendships) of adolescents with an early onset of externalizing behavior (i.e., alcohol use, tobacco use, and antisocial behavior). Building on Moffitt's dual-taxonomy model, it was hypothesized that early onset adolescents were more popular, but not necessarily more liked or with more friends. Hypotheses were tested using data from the Social Network Analysis of Risk Behaviors in Early Adolescence (SNARE) study (N = 1,100, 50% boys, (X) over bar (age) = 12.7, SD = 0.47 years). Findings indicated that adolescents with an early onset of one or more externalizing behaviors were more popular, less liked, and had as many friends as their peers. These findings suggest that early onset adolescents potentially function as role models