Although forming close, egalitarian peer relationships is a central developmental task of adolescence, little is known about the psychological consequences of power imbalances in adolescents’ friendships. The current study investigated whether there are psychological costs of feeling subordinate to friends by examining longitudinal associations between adolescents’ perceived friend dominance and internalizing symptoms. Across one year, five waves of survey data were collected from 388 adolescents (M_age = 14.05, SD_age = 0.41; 61% female; 46% White, 19% Black, 17% Asian, 6% Arab, Middle Eastern, North African, 6% Biracial/Multiethnic, 3% Latinx/Hispanic, 1% American Indian/Native American, 1% identifying with another race/ethnicity, <1% not reporting). Multilevel modeling disentangled between- and within-person effects of perceived friend dominance on depressive and anxiety (internalizing) symptoms and tested self-esteem as a mediator. The results indicated that both individual differences and intraindividual fluctuations in perceived friend dominance were associated with internalizing symptoms. At the between-person level, adolescents who perceived their friends as more dominant reported more severe depressive and anxiety symptoms than adolescents who perceived their friends as less dominant. At the within-person level, increases in perceived friend dominance were accompanied by increases in depressive and anxiety symptoms, and these associations were partially explained by changes in self-esteem. The findings advance understanding of power dynamics in adolescents’ close friendships and highlight the psychological toll of feeling dominated by friends.

尽管形成亲密、平等的同伴关系是青春期的核心发展任务，但人们对青少年友谊中权力失衡的心理后果知之甚少。目前的研究通过检查青少年感知的朋友支配和内化症状之间的纵向关联，调查了感觉从属于朋友的心理成本是否存在。一年内，从 388 名青少年中收集了五轮调查数据（M_年龄 = 14.05，SD_年龄 = 0.41; 61% 女性；46% 白人、19% 黑人、17% 亚洲人、6% 阿拉伯人、中东人、北非人、6% 混血儿/多民族人、3% 拉丁人/西班牙人、1% 美洲印第安人/美洲原住民、1% 认同其他种族/民族, <1% 未报告）。多层次建模解开了感知到的朋友支配对抑郁和焦虑（内化）症状的人与人之间和人内的影响，并测试了自尊作为中介的作用。结果表明，感知到的朋友支配地位的个体差异和个体内波动都与内化症状有关。在人与人之间的层面上，认为朋友更具支配性的青少年报告的抑郁和焦虑症状比认为朋友不那么支配性的青少年更严重。在个人层面上，感知到的朋友支配地位的增加伴随着抑郁和焦虑症状的增加，这些关联部分可以用自尊的变化来解释。研究结果促进了对青少年亲密友谊中权力动态的理解，并强调了被朋友支配的心理伤害。