Dyadic Socially Aggressive Talk: Associations with Positive and Negative Friendship Quality (2009)

Undergraduate: Adrienne Banny

Faculty Advisor: Mitch Prinstein
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

---

This study examined how socially aggressive talk influences the development of positive and negative friendship quality over time. Fifty-six adolescents (46.6% female) in grades 9 (66.7%) and 10 (33.3%) attended a laboratory session with a friend in which their conversations were videotaped and coded for socially aggressive talk. Target adolescents completed measures of positive and negative friendship quality during the laboratory session and during a follow-up phone call six months later. Analyses revealed that high levels of socially aggressive talk at Time 1 predicted increases in negative friendship quality six months later. In addition, high levels of socially aggressive talk were more likely to predict increases in positive friendship quality six months later if adolescents mutually nominated each other as “best friends.” Adaptive functions of socially aggressive talk are discussed.