When do peers matter? The moderating role of peer support in the relationship between environmental adversity, complex trauma, and adolescent psychopathology in socially disadvantaged adolescents

Abstract

We found significant unidirectional dynamic relations, where both types of adversity were associated with higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Peer support significantly moderated this effect, but only for complex trauma, in that higher levels of peer support were associated with a decreased impact of complex trauma on internalizing and externalizing symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of social relations and the quality of peer relations in particular as factors that may mitigate the risk of early exposure to trauma.