Close friendships are deeply valuable for young people. They’re a crucial source of validation and support that underpin the development of social skills and individual autonomy. High-quality friendships, characterised by trust, intimacy, and support, are significant for teenage development, laying the foundations for healthy adult relationships.
Unsurprisingly, adolescent friendships are linked to mental health. Young people with at least one friendship have higher self-worth and less depression. Those with high-quality friendships or more friends are less likely to experience emotional distress or social difficulties. Even a small number of high-quality friendships can also act as a buffer against wider social difficulties like a lack of acceptance from peers.
Social Support and Mental Health Resilience
Sociologists often discuss the value of social support as a buffer against difficult life events. Strong social support can help individuals cope with and recover from negative experiences with greater resilience and flexibility. Social support helps individuals manage their emotions, find solutions to problems, maintain self-love, and have a positive outlook for the future.
Research has consistently found that support from friends is a protective factor against suicide, depression, anxiety, and stress. It’s also positively connected with mental well-being, self-esteem, and optimism. Supportive friendships, then, play an essential role in young people’s mental health.
Can Difficulties in Friendships Cause Worsening Mental Health?
Given that friendships are so meaningful for young people’s mental well-being, what happens when difficulties develop between teens? Problems in friendships can sometimes lead to the breakdown of friendships and may leave adolescents with fewer friends than they had before. In other cases, friendship difficulties may reduce the quality of friendships, affecting their capacity for trust, intimacy, and mutual support.
With both friendship number and friendship quality linked to positive mental well-being, friendship difficulties may cause worsening mental health. When teenagers face problems in a friendship, they can lose a valuable source of emotional support and companionship, at least for some time.
With less social support, teenagers may find it harder to cope with and manage their emotions, such as stress or disappointment. It may become more difficult to stay resilient when they face challenges in their home, school, or social lives. Some of the key processes of adolescence – such as identity exploration and role changes – may start to feel overwhelming or unmanageable.
Can Worsening Mental Health Cause Difficulties in Friendships?
As much as difficulties in friendships can lead to mental health symptoms, worsening mental health can cause friendship difficulties. This is true for many different types of mental health disorders, including eating disorders, depression, and anxiety.
At the same time, some neurodevelopmental disorders or forms of neurodiversity may make young people more vulnerable to friendship difficulties and, consequently, mental health concerns.
In this blog, we’ll look at the link between teen friendship difficulties, borderline personality disorder, and ADHD.
Teen Friendship Difficulties and Borderline Personality Disorder
Borderline personality disorder is a type of mental health disorder that usually develops during adolescence. Young people with BPD experience instability in their sense of self, emotions, and relationships with other people. This can make many aspects of daily life difficult to manage.
However, with effective support, young people can recover from BPD and live fulfilling, independent lives.
Interpersonal difficulties and unstable relationships are some of the core symptoms of BPD. Unsurprisingly, research has found that among adolescents, BPD features are linked to problems in many aspects of friendships and peer relationships. These include insecurity in friendships, difficulties in overall friendship quality, and a tendency to seek exclusive ‘best-friend’ relationships. This means that adolescents with BPD traits and symptoms usually experience more problems in their friendships than others.
Could Difficulties in Teen Friendships Contribute to the Onset of BPD?
Borderline personality disorder doesn’t just suddenly appear. Instead, it develops over time, as genetic vulnerabilities and personality traits interact with a young person’s environment and experiences. This means that certain events or patterns during childhood and adolescence can contribute to the development of BPD traits.
For some teenagers, difficulties in friendships may be one experience that contributes to BPD. A research review found that current interpersonal difficulties during adolescence were linked to increasing or worsening BPD symptoms. This included relational aggression, such as manipulation, in friendships and overreliance and antagonism in romantic relationships.
However, it’s not clear from the study whether these experiences contribute to the development of BPD or are a consequence of worsening BPD symptoms. Both may be true.
Interpersonal Difficulties and Early Intervention
In adolescence, when borderline personality disorder is emerging, symptoms are often still flexible. This means it’s an important time to intervene and prevent the disorder from developing.
Identifying interpersonal difficulties and other signs that are connected with the development of BPD – or worsening BPD symptoms – helps young people receive support as soon as possible. Such early interventions can be fundamental to preventing further harm.
Interpersonal Difficulties and Adolescent ADHD
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that usually begins in childhood. While ADHD symptoms can change or reduce as someone gets older, many adolescents, young adults, and adults also live with ADHD.
Teenagers with ADHD may have problems in areas like concentration, attention, and impulsivity. But many young people with ADHD also enjoy ‘superpowers’ such as hyperfocus and creativity.
One challenge that teenagers with ADHD may face is difficulties in friendships. Research suggests that interpersonal problems (that are often present with childhood ADHD) usually continue into adolescence, leading to fewer friends and more severe peer rejection.
These challenges may be caused by cognitive and social differences associated with the disorder. These include difficulties understanding social situations or solving social problems.
Teenagers with ADHD are more vulnerable to developing mental health disorders than those who don’t have ADHD. This is mainly because ADHD makes it more difficult for adolescents to navigate certain aspects of daily life, such as interpersonal relationships. This is underpinned by the failure of societies to provide young people with ADHD with sufficient support, or structure daily life so that everyone can flourish.
On the other hand, practical support can help teenagers with ADHD improve their social and cognitive skills, making it easier to maintain high-quality friendships. This can have a significant impact on their mental health, protecting them from mental health symptoms and improving their mental well-being.
The Wave Clinic: Building Life Advantage
The Wave Clinic offers residential and outpatient mental health treatment spaces for young people. We specialise in child and adolescent psychiatry, offering a diverse selection of treatment modalities delivered with exceptional expertise.
We take a whole-person approach to mental health care, supporting young people to continue their education, gain life skills, and grow in self-confidence. Our programs are family-centred and trauma-focused, emphasising the interactions of past experiences and social relationships with young people’s inner and outer worlds.
If you’re interested in finding out more about our programs, get in touch today.
