Academic performance and depression in Chinese children: Same-domain and cross-domain effects in friendships

Xinyin Chen; Jiaxi Zhou; Junsheng Liu; Dan Li; Shihong Liu

doi:10.1111/cdev.13864

Academic performance and depression in Chinese children: Same-domain and cross-domain effects in friendships

Child Dev. 2023 Mar;94(2):348-362. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13864. Epub 2022 Oct 18.

Authors

Xinyin Chen¹, Jiaxi Zhou¹, Junsheng Liu², Dan Li³, Shihong Liu³

Affiliations

¹ University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
² East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
³ Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China.

PMID: 36254836
DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13864

Abstract

This 1-year longitudinal study examined the effects of academic performance and depression in friendships among elementary school children in China. Participants included 1122 children (44% boys) within 561 stable friendship dyads initially in fourth and fifth grades (initial M_age = 11 years). Data on academic performance, depression, and friendship were collected from multiple sources in the period of 2012 to 2014. Dyadic analysis using the actor-partner interdependence model showed that friends' academic performance significantly and positively predicted children's later academic performance, indicating same-domain effects, and significantly and negatively predicted children's later depression, indicating cross-domain effects, with a medium effect size (ε₃ = .70) for the effects of academic performance. The results help understand the role of friendship in children's development in the Chinese context.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Academic Performance*
Child
Depression
Female
Friends*
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Peer Group