(PS11-41) Peer Relationship Quality and Psychological Adjustment in Adolescence: The Moderating Role of Expressive Flexibility

Peer relationship quality can significantly shape adolescent psychosocial adjustment through fostering social connectedness and facilitating specific developmental tasks. Additionally, nonverbal behaviors, such as facial emotional expressions, can play an important role in conveying crucial social cues that support peer interactions. Robust associations have been found between expressive flexibility (EF), defined as the ability to flexibly regulate emotional expressions, and better adjustment following stressful life events. However, the preponderance of evidence in this domain comes from adult populations. Building upon initial research on EF and peer relationship quality, this study examined how EF and perceived peer relationship quality influenced adolescent psychological adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of a larger project, 123 adolescents (ages 11-17) completed self-report measures, including the Flexible Regulation of Emotional Expression-Youth (FREE-Y), the Inventory of Parent & Peer Attachment (IPPA), and the Youth Self-Report (YSR). A moderation analysis revealed that peer relationship quality significantly predicted the degree of psychological maladjustment experienced by adolescents [F(3,119) = 6.546, p < .005, R²= .142], with EF significantly moderating this relationship (p = .0205, ∆R2 = .0398). For adolescents who indicated high EF, no relationship was found between the quality of peer relationship and level of psychological maladjustment, emphasizing the vital role of flexibility in buffering against adversity. Interestingly, however, adolescents with low EF and low reported quality of peer relationships exhibited heightened psychological problems, in comparison to those who reported high quality peer relationships. This underscores the role of high-quality peer relationships in predicting adjustment during adolescence.

Our results indicated that EF can serve as a protective factor amid periods of instability that present novel and formidable stressors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. They also emphasize the supportive function of peer relationships when EF is not in evidence. This research therefore calls attention to the importance of examining how predictors of psychological adjustment interact with regulatory mechanisms like EF to facilitate adaptive coping in adolescence. It highlights the value of cognitive and behavioral interventions that focus on concurrently cultivating strong peer relationships and emotion flexibility during adolescence. Empowering adolescents to leverage peer relationships for support and simultaneously build their emotion flexibility capacity can pave the way for improved adjustment throughout this critical developmental period. Further research is needed to further elucidate how the behavioral and cognitive dimensions of regulatory flexibility interact with different facets of peer relationships to impact psychological adjustment over the various developmental stages of adolescence.