Friends’ Behavioral and Biological Synchrony in Relation to Youth Socioemotional Adjustment: A Systematic Review and Conceptual Model

Abstract

Youth friendship synchrony, the temporal linking of behavioral and biological processes between friends during an interaction, has been documented as a useful indicator of friendships with implications for socioemotional adjustment. Despite the utility of measuring friendship synchrony in relation to youth functioning, there has yet to be a systematic review synthesizing known friendship synchrony literature. To fill this gap, the present investigation conducted a comprehensive literature search, yielding 30 studies that met inclusion criteria. Youth from included studies ranged from 25-months- to 20-years-old. Friends were comprised of cisgender, boy-boy and girl-girl dyads. All data were collected in the United States (n = 26), Canada (n = 3), and Germany (n = 1). Behavioral synchrony differed by dyad-age, but not gender. Strong, positive behavioral synchrony of positive processes (BSPP; i.e., highly concordant dyadic coordination of adaptive behaviors) positively related to adaptive socioemotional adjustment (e.g., higher observed friendship quality). In one study, strong, positive behavioral synchrony of negative processes (BSNP; i.e., highly synchronized mutual resignation on a dyadic stress task) was positively associated with less dyadic cooperation. No clear pattern of effects was identified between friends? biological synchrony and socioemotional adjustment. Taken together, modeling, coaching, and promoting strong, positive BSPP between friends on the dyad-level is likely an effective tool for enhancing youth?s socioemotional adjustment across development. Such a tool may be especially important for adolescent populations, a developmental stage in which friends serve as a primary influence on youth?s socioemotional adjustment.