Mattering is the tendency to view the self as significant to other people. Theoretically, mattering has been proposed to promote psychosocial well-being. Although prior research has found positive associations between mattering to parents and psychosocial well-being among adolescents, extant studies have not clarified whether perceptions of mattering predict psychosocial well-being or the other way around. Thus, the direction of the association needs verification. The purpose of this study was to examine the direction of associations between adolescents’ mattering to parents and friends and adolescents’ depressive symptoms and problem behaviors using cross-lag models. A two-wave annual survey assessed mattering to family and friends, depressive symptoms, and problem behaviors of students in grades 6 to 9 (N = 164; 56.1% girls) in a school district in western Canada (Time 1 age range = 11 to 15 years; mean age = 12.23; standard deviation = 1.07). Structural equation modeling was used to assess concurrent, auto-regressive, and cross-lagged associations between mattering and psychosocial well-being. Mattering to mother, father, and friends was assessed in separate models. Significant lags were found only between mattering to friends and depressive symptoms and problem behaviors, with positive associations suggesting a form of socialization through mattering. With one exception, mattering to parents was not directly associated with psychosocial well-being over time. However, gender moderated the association between mattering to mother (Time 1), depressive symptoms (Time 2), problem behaviors (Time 1), and mattering to mother (Time 2). Taken together, these results suggest that mattering may not be as strongly protective of adolescent well-being as previously suggested.

This article used a sample of 2 adolescents per family to (a) examine the extent to which parental monitoring and adolescent information management are characteristics of families or of dyads and (b) replicate past research on parental monitoring and adolescent information management using models that distinguish differences between families from differences within them. Within- and between-family differences were examined as a function of parents (positive and negative parenting, immigration status), individual and peer-reported problem behavior, and adolescent characteristics (age, gender) in a sample of 300 Swedish families with 2 siblings each (aged 10 to 19). Parents' self-reports of their monitoring of siblings and of their adolescents' information management were consistently more similar than adolescents' self-reports or reports on parents. Siblings' reports of parental monitoring and self-reports of routine and personal information management were modestly related to one another. Reports of secrecy, however, were statistically independent. Results predicting between-sibling differences are consistent with those obtained from longitudinal studies of one sibling per family: adolescents who engage in problem behavior are more secretive and disclose less information to parents. Their parents report them to be more secretive. Siblings who engage in delinquency report lower parent solicitation and control. Siblings' reports of both positive and negative parenting were associated with within-family differences in parental monitoring and their own information management. The results reinforce previous findings on the important role adolescents play in their own socialization. Differences between adolescent and parent reports highlight important methodological biases that may obscure key processes in family communication.

INTRODUCTION: Depressive symptoms and non-suicidal self-injury not only increase in prevalence during adolescence, but they can also occur together. Both psychological problems seem to have similar precipitating conditions, suggesting they have transdiagnostic conditions-personal or contextual characteristics that contribute to co-occurrence. We sought to understand when these two problems co-occur and what is related to their co-occurrence.

METHODS:  = 13.65 years, SD = 0.64), 53.7% boys and 47.3% girls. Most of the adolescents were Swedish (89%), with parents who were married or cohabitating (68%). We also examined the transitions between profiles over time.

RESULTS: Our results suggest that during this time frame, depressive symptoms and self-injury tend to emerge and stabilize or abate together. We also examined a broad array of predictors, including individual characteristics, emotion dysregulation, experiences with friends, parents' negative reactions to behavior, and school stress. The significant unique predictors suggest that adolescents who reported being subjected to relational aggression, having negative experiences while drinking, and low self-esteem had a greater probability of moving from moderate to high levels or maintaining high levels of depressive symptoms and self-injury, compared to adolescents classified in the other statuses.

CONCLUSIONS: Focusing on negative interpersonal experiences and selfesteem as transdiagnostic conditions may guide research and aid clinicians in supporting adolescents who feel depressed and engage in self-injury.