Co‐Regulation Within Adolescent Friendships

ABSTRACT Friendships assume an increasingly important role in socialization during adolescence, with the potential to help shape how youth cope with negative emotions and stressors. Extending theory and research on co‐rumination among friends, this study sought to examine an alternative novel socialization process within friendships—co‐reappraisal—that is hypothesized to promote healthier socioemotional adjustment in adolescents. Adolescents ( N = 330; M age = 15.0 years, SD = 1.5) reported on their tendency to engage in co‐rumination and co‐reappraisal within their friendships and their levels of internalizing symptoms and friendship quality. They also reported on associated constructs of intrapersonal rumination and cognitive reappraisal. Analyses revealed that co‐rumination and co‐reappraisal represent distinct, positively associated processes that are more common within the friendships of adolescent girls than boys. There was a significant positive indirect effect from gender to internalizing symptoms via co‐rumination and a significant negative indirect effect via co‐reappraisal. Whereas co‐reappraisal accounted for higher levels of friendship quality in girls than in boys, co‐rumination predicted lower friendship quality once co‐reappraisal and gender were taken into account. These results suggest the need to reconceptualize the precise nature of socioemotional trade‐offs of co‐regulation within friendships.