Undergraduate women are at risk of developing internalizing symptoms in response to relational stressors and social norm pressures associated with college life. Co-rumination, excessive and ongoing discussion between two or more people about emotionally distressing topics, both increases connection and intimacy between friends and increased risk of depressive symptoms. Relationships may then be mechanisms of risk when support is sought in ineffective ways. The goal of the current study is to extend research on co-rumination and depressive symptom risks in friend dyads to friend clusters within larger social networks. First, I hypothesize that a homophily effect of co-rumination will exist within friend clusters such that individual co-rumination will predict cluster average co-rumination. Second, I hypothesize that co-rumination will account for a depression homophily such that higher group average co-rumination levels will be associated with higher group average depressive symptoms. Hypotheses will be tested using social network analysis and multi-linear modeling.
