Dissertation Research: Friendship Integration and Adolescent Mental Health

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation research will analyze data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to examine the impact of friendships on mental health. The principal outcome studied is the one-year change in high school students' scores on standard depression scales. Positive mental health changes are hypothesized to result from higher prior levels of integration into friendship networks and improvements in those friendship networks. Special attention will be paid to how friendship networks may explain different levels of mental health for minority adolescents. School characteristics such as school size and urban location will be studied both for their direct effect on mental health and how friendship networks may affect mental health differently in different contexts.