Sex Differences in the Mediating Effects of Peer Stress--论文代写范文

精神病理学研究需要来自多个系统，青少年和他们的社会背景之间的动态发展。在研究最新的心理环境时，这篇essay代写范文调查了性别差异在青春期。下面的essay代写范文进行论述。

Abstract 
  This research investigated whether exposure to peer stress serves as one pathway through which pubertal development contributes to depression over time, differentially for girls and boys. Youth (N ¼ 149; 9.6–14.8 years) and their caregivers provided information at two waves, 1 year apart, on puberty (Wave 1), peer stress (occurring between Waves 1 and 2), and depression (Waves 1 and 2). Structural equation modeling analyses examined sex differences in the extent to which peer stress mediated the impact of pubertal status and timing on subsequent depression (i.e., tests of moderated mediation). Significant sex-moderated mediation was found for both pubertal status and timing. As indicated by moderate effect proportions, in girls, heightened peer stress partially mediated the longitudinal association between (a) more advanced pubertal status and depression; and (b) linear, but not curvilinear, pubertal timing (i.e., earlier maturation) and depression. This research contributes to our growing understanding of the interplay among physical, psychological, and social processes involved in the sex difference in adolescent depression.

  Recent research implicates puberty, more so than age, in the emergent sex difference in adolescent depression (Conley & Rudolph, 2009; Hayward, Gotlib, Schraedley, & Litt, 1999). Yet, very little research explores why or how puberty influences depression, and the resulting sex difference that emerges in adolescence. The complex processes underlying the development of psychopathology necessitate research examining contributions from multiple systems (biological, psychological, and interpersonal) and the dynamic transactions between developing adolescents and their social contexts (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2002; Lerner, 1987; Sroufe & Rutter, 1984). Following recent developments in research on the psychosocial context and effects of puberty (Compian, Gowen, & Hayward, 2009; Conley & Rudolph, 2009; Graber, Brooks-Gunn, & Archibald, 2005), the present study investigated sex differences in one possible pathway through which puberty contributes to adolescent depression, namely, exposure to heightened peer stress.

 Pubertal Development and the Sex Difference in Depression 
  Research on pubertal development has revealed, beyond mere physical and biological changes, many psychological and social implications of puberty (Graber, 2003; Haynie & Piquero, 2006). There are several ways in which pubertal development might heighten risk for depression in particular. On a psychosocial level, pubertal changes confer negative psychological (e.g., poor body image) and social (e.g., exclusion, victimization) risks, which in turn predict depression. On a physical level, puberty entails bodily changes that mark a physical transition to adulthood at a time when adolescents are socially unprepared. On a biological level, puberty brings hormonal changes linked to depression (Angold, Costello, Erkanli, & Worthman, 1999; Susman, Dorn, & Chrousos, 1991). Just as pubertal hormones differ for girls and boys, the psychological and social effects of puberty vary by sex, which might influence the emerging sex difference in adolescent depression. Pubertalstatus, one’s stage of physical maturation, has been implicated in rising adolescent depression and the sex difference therein. 

  More mature pubertal status in girls, but not in boys, is linked to higher rates of depressive disorders (Angold, Costello, & Worthman, 1998), as well as to higher levels of depressive symptoms and mood (Ge, Elder, Regnerus, & Cox, 2001; Hayward et al., 1999; Wichstrom, 1999). In one study, pubertal status fully accounted for the sex difference in adolescent depression (Ge, Conger, & Elder, 2001). Other research reveals that pubertal status, but not age, accounts for the sex difference in depression (Angold et al., 1998; Conley & Rudolph, 2009). Pubertal timing (pubertal status relative to age) might have even stronger links with psychosocial adjustment (Negriff, Fung, & Trickett, 2008). Earlier-developing adolescents might be underprepared for these changes, feel deviant and insecure about their difference, and lack social support from peers experiencing similar changes (Petersen, 1983; Ruble & BrooksGunn, 1982). On the other end of the spectrum, youth who develop later than their peers might feel left behind as their moredeveloped peers transition into adolescence. 

  Thus, both earlier and later pubertal timing can heighten risk for psychosocial distress (Natsuaki, Biehl, & Ge, 2009; Weichold, Silbereisen, & Schmitt-Rodermund, 2003). Indeed, research links pubertal timing with depression, particularly in girls. Most consistently, earlier-maturing girls exhibit more depressive disorders, symptoms, and mood than their on-time or later-maturing peers (e.g., Conley & Rudolph, 2009; Ge et al., 2003; Negriff et al., 2008; Patton et al., 2008). Later-maturing girls also experience psychological difficulties (Carter, Jaccard, Silverman, & Pina, 2009; Dorn, Susman, & Ponirakis, 2003; Natsuaki, Biehl, et al., 2009). Among boys, later maturation is associated with elevated depressive symptoms (Benjet & Herna´ndez-Guzma´n, 2002; Dorn et al., 2003; Huddleston & Ge, 2003; Weichold et al., 2003), and there is increasing evidence that earlier-maturing boys also exhibit more depression (Kaltiala-Heino, Kosunen, & Rimpela, 2003; Natsuaki, Biehl, et al., 2009; Negriff et al., 2008). These findings suggest a curvilinear association between pubertal timing and depression for both girls and boys (Conley & Rudolph, 2009; for reviews, see Huddleston & Ge, 2003; Weichold et al., 2003).

 Social Processes Linking Puberty to Depression 
  Puberty is likely to affect adolescents’ social worlds because it occurs within a social context. Pubertal development entails bodily changes that are held to close scrutiny by peers, amplified by the focus on social comparison and conformity in adolescence (Brooks-Gunn & Warren, 1989; Ruble & Brooks-Gunn, 1982). Further, many of the psychological effects of puberty depend on adolescents’ reference to their peer group. In many Western cultures, for boys it is socially desirable to have the postpubertal physical form, whereas for girls it is not (Petersen & Crockett, 1985); thus, pubertal maturation has more negative psychological and social effects for girls compared to boys in general, and for earlier-developing girls and later-developing boys in particular (Felson & Haynie, 2002; Simmons, Blyth, & McKinney, 1983; Taga, Markey, & Friedman, 2006; Tobin-Richards, Boxer, & Petersen, 1983). 

  For example, more advanced status and earlier timing are linked to girls’ quantity and quality of friendships, friendship group composition (e.g., deviant peers, opposite-sex peers), and involvement in romantic and sexual relationships (Cavanagh, 2004; Haynie, 2003). A growing body of research links girls’ off-time development in both directions (earlier and later) to social disadvantages and stressors, including lack of close friendships (earlier and later puberty; BrooksGunn, Warren, Samelson, & Fox, 1986), low social support, acceptance, and popularity (later puberty; Brooks-Gunn & Warren, 1988; Michael & Eccles, 2003), and greater physiological reactivity to interpersonal conflict (earlier puberty; Smith & Powers, 2009). Furthermore, girls typically have a stronger depressive response to peer stress, or more broadly to interpersonal stress (Leadbeater, Blatt, & Quinlan, 1995; Oldenburg & Kerns, 1997; Rudolph, 2002; Rudolph & Hammen, 1999; Schraedley, Gotlib, & Hayward, 1999). 

  In sum, this research suggests a curvilinear association between pubertal timing and stress in the peer domain, such that offtime development confers social disadvantages for girls, more so than for boys, which in turn might contribute to the sex difference in adolescent depression (Rudolph, 2009). Although direct tests of such mediation pathways are limited, some research suggests that the impact of puberty on depression is at least in part due to psychosocial influences. For example, a recent study (Natsuaki, Klimes-Dougan, et al., 2009) revealed that earlier-maturing girls displayed heightened internalizing symptoms, in part because of their elevated sensitivity to interpersonal stress. In contrast, this mediation pathway did not hold up in boys because the association between interpersonal sensitivity and internalizing symptoms was nonsignificant. 

  Other research found that earlier pubertal timing in girls predicted less adaptive responses to peer stress, which in turn predicted higher levels of aggression, but this model did not hold up for internalizing symptoms (Sontag, Graber, Brooks-Gunn, & Warren, 2008). A similar study (Graber, Brooks-Gunn, & Warren, 2006) revealed that the association between girls’ earlier pubertal timing and depressive symptoms was mediated by emotional arousal. Despite these important contributions, prior research examining mediational pathways linking puberty to adjustment suffers from several methodological limitations, including (a) concurrent designs; (b) the predominant use of symptom checklists to assess depression, which may not provide optimal discrimination among different types of psychopathology; and (c) limited assessment and operationalization of pubertal development (e.g., single-item assessments, dichotomous categories rather than continuous variables of pubertal timing; for two exceptions, see Lindberg, Grabe, & Hyde, 2007; Natsuaki, Klimes-Dougan, et al., 2009). The present study aimed to address these limitations and thus illuminate the longitudinal process linking puberty to depression in adolescence.（essay代写)

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