Viewing archives for Dr. Jose Marquez

Longitudinal Relationships Across Bullying Victimization, Friendship and Social Support, and Internalizing Symptoms in Early-to-Middle Adolescence: A Developmental Cascades Investigation

Qiqi Cheng, Kathryn Mills-Webb, Jose Marquez, and Neil Humphrey

Abstract

Current understanding of the longitudinal relationships between different aspects of peer relationships and mental health problems in early- to mid-adolescence is limited. In particular, the role played by gender in these developmental cascades processes is unclear, little is known about within-person effects between bullying victimization and internalizing symptoms, and the theorized benefits of friendship and social support are largely untested. Addressing these important research gaps, this study tested a number of theory-driven hypotheses (e.g., interpersonal risk model, transactional model) regarding longitudinal relationships between bullying victimization, friendship and social support, and internalizing symptoms. The study sample was N = 26,458 adolescents (50.6% girls, average age 12 years 8 months (SD = 3.58 months) at baseline) attending k = 176 schools in Greater Manchester, England. Separating within-person effects from between-person effects, a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) was applied to three annual waves of data. Analyses revealed that developmental cascade pathways varied across gender, as follows: higher rates of bullying victimization led to increased internalizing symptoms (partially for girls, fully for boys) and lower levels of friendship and social support (for girls only); higher levels of friendship and social support did not confer any protection against future bullying victimization (for girls or boys) but did lead to reduced internalizing symptoms (partially for girls, but not for boys); and, higher levels of internalizing symptoms led to increased rates of bullying victimization (for boys only) and lower levels of friendship and social support (partially for girls, fully for boys). Evidence of reciprocal relationships between bullying victimization and internalizing symptoms (for boys only) and between internalizing symptoms and friendship and social support (for girls only) was also found. Effect sizes of developmental cascade pathways varied but were mostly in the moderate-to-large range relative to the empirical distribution of cross-lagged effects in existing studies (i.e., 50th to 75th percentile). Sensitivity analyses indicated that findings were largely robust to a number of researcher-led analytic choices. The current study indicates that approaches to prevent or reduce the effects of bullying victimization should be prioritized, given the consistent evidence of its substantial role in increasing internalizing symptoms for both genders, in addition to its deleterious impact on girls’ friendship and social support. Preregistration: This study was preregistered at https://osf.io/xrwfq. The study design, hypotheses, and target analyses were registered.

Longitudinal relationships across sleep, physical activity, and mental wellbeing in early-to-mid-adolescence: a developmental cascades investigation

Jose Marquez, Margarita Panayiotou, Reihaneh Farzinnia, Qiqi Cheng, and Neil Humphrey

Abstract

Purpose Sleep (SL), physical activity (PA), and wellbeing (WB) are three factors linked to positive development in adolescence. Despite theoretical support and some empirical evidence of developmental associations between these factors, few studies have rigorously investigated reciprocal associations over time separating between-person and within-person effects, and none have investigated all three in concert. Thus, it remains unclear how the interplay between SL, PA and WB unfolds across time within individuals. This study examines this question in the crucial early-to-mid-adolescence developmental transition.

Method Separating between- and within-person effects, a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model was fitted to a dataset of N = 27,949 adolescents (age 12/13 at first timepoint) from Greater Manchester, England, using a three-by-three design (three annual timepoints: T1, T2, T3; three variables: SL, PA, WB).

Results Analyses revealed gender-specific developmental cascade pathways. Specifically, we found positive reciprocal associations between SL and WB for girls (at T1→T2), whereas for boys, SL positively predicted WB (at both T1→T2 and T2→Τ3) but WB did not predict SL. We also found that WB predicted PA for boys (at T2→T3) but this finding was sensitive to model specification and yielded a smaller effect than other cross-lagged pathways.

Conclusion Our results highlight the importance of sleep as a driver of adolescent wellbeing, and the role of gender in developmental cascade processes. Study strengths, limitations, and implications are discussed.

I live in Lithuania, the happiest place on earth for under 30s. As a very happy 28-year-old, here’s what it’s like.

Business Insider

Recently, Lithuania topped the World Happiness Report ranking for under 30s, with the country’s young people rating themselves 7.76 out of 10 on the happiness scale. I completely understand why, especially as a young person living in Vilnius.

Economic Development and Adolescent Wellbeing in 139 Countries

Jose Marquez, Ferran Casas, Laura Taylor and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve

Abstract

There is a positive association between the level of economic development and national levels of overall life satisfaction (OLS) in the adult population, with decreasing marginal returns. However, research shows no association in early adolescence and a negative association in middle adolescence. We hypothesize that this is due to the exclusion of low-income countries, where adolescent wellbeing is rarely collected. 2015–2019 Gallup World Poll data from 139 countries in middle adolescence (age 15–17; n 36,907) were analysed using linear regression to study the association between country levels of economic development and OLS, positive emotions (PE), and negative emotions (NE), and how this varies across economic development levels, and gender. Variations across economic development levels were compared with those observed in the adult population. Log per-capita GDP is positively associated with OLS and PE, although in high-income countries no association is observed for PE, and among females for OLS. For NE, a negative association is observed in lower-income countries and a positive association in higher-income countries. In this age group (age 15–17), the log per-capita GDP – OLS association is stronger in lower-income countries than in higher-income countries, but this pattern reverses with age in adulthood. A nuanced relationship exists between economic development and adolescent wellbeing, which varies across measures, levels of economic development, gender, and age -including notable differences compared to adults. Our study highlights the need for improving child and adolescent wellbeing data worldwide, especially in lower-income countries, to better understand how best to support wellbeing globally.

Why are America’s youth so deeply unhappy?

USA TODAY

With the world’s largest economy and its highest GDP, you might think the United States would have the world’s happiest citizens. But you’d be wrong. This year, when the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network released its annual World Happiness Report, the U.S. had dropped out of the top 20, landing at 23rd on the list. The reason? America’s youth are deeply unhappy. What societal and cultural factors are at play here? Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre and a professor of economics and behavioral science, joins The Excerpt to share his insights into what truly makes people happy.

Why Aren’t Today’s Youth Happy?

Psychology Today

In many parts of the world, younger folks are happier than the old. But in the U.S. the opposite is true. Happiness has plummeted so much for the young over the recent past that they are now much less happy than the older generations.

The U.S. ranked number 10 in happiness for folks 60 or older but a startling number 62 for those under 30.

How to Make America’s Young People Happier Again

The Happiness Lab

The US is sliding down the world happiness rankings – but it’s the unhappiness of young people that’s really dragging down the average. What has happened to make Gen Z so sad? And what can be done to turn the situation around?

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve (director of Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre) has been analyzing the figures for the World Happiness Report. He offers advice to young people and parents, and looks at what happy young Lithuanians can teach the rest of the world.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Happiest of All?

Psychology Today

The World Happiness Report of 2024 points to childhood and adolescence as periods of considerable importance and a unique window of opportunity for intervention to make strong and positive impacts worldwide to ensure higher global well-being.

The U.S. is no longer one of the 20 happiest countries. If you’re young, you probably know why.

NBC News

“We had picked up in recent years from scattered sources of data that child and youth well-being, particularly so in the United States, had seen a drop,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, professor of economics and behavioral science at Oxford, who is one of the editors of the report. “That has pushed us for the first time to really slice and dice the data by these age categories, which we normally don’t do.”

America’s happiness score drops amid a youth ‘midlife crisis’

The Washington Post

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Center and an editor of the report, said in an interview Wednesday that the findings are concerning “because youth well-being and mental health is highly predictive of a whole host of subjective and objective indicators of quality of life as people age and go through the course of life.”