(c) loneliness (Boivin & Hymel, 1997; Boivin et al., 1995). (d) anxiety and depression (Gazelle & Ladd, 2003). ***during middle-and late-childhood ...
Social Withdrawal, Negative Emotion, and Peer Difficulties during Late Childhood Julie Wojslawowicz Bowker1, Kenneth Rubin2, Linda Rose-Krasnor3, & Cathryn Booth-LaForce4 1 University
at Buffalo, SUNY 2 University of Maryland, College Park 3 Brock University 4 University of Washington
Maryland NIMH Friendship Project* Post-docs & Graduate Students: Dr. Kathleen Dwyer, Dr. Amy Kennedy, Alli Buskirk, Ebony Dashiell, Melissa Duchene, Bridget Fredstrom, Angel Kim, Sarrit Kovacs, Melissa Menzer, Wonjung Oh Undergraduate Students: Stacey Chuffo, Ebony Dashiell, Erin Galloway, Jon Goldner, Sue Hartman, Alison Levitch, Abby Moorman, Andre Peri, Josh Rubin, & Erin Shockey * Research supported by National Institute of Mental Health grant 1R01MH58116 -- Kenneth H. Rubin (PI).
What is Social Withdrawal? Social withdrawal: consistent (across situations and over time) display of all forms of solitary behavior when encountering familiar and/or unfamiliar peers (Rubin, Burgess, Kennedy & Stewart, 2004).
Social isolation: expression of solitary behavior that results from being isolated (rejected) by the peer group.
Social withdrawal: isolation from the peer group.
Social isolation: isolation by the peer group.
Internalizing “Costs” of Social Withdrawal Social withdrawal is associated with: (a) low self-esteem and attributions of internal blame. (b) negative self-perceptions of social competence (Rubin et al., 1995).
(c) loneliness (Boivin & Hymel, 1997; Boivin et al., 1995). (d) anxiety and depression (Gazelle & Ladd, 2003). ***during middle-and late-childhood
Social Withdrawal & Peer Difficulties Socially withdrawn children are often rejected, excluded, and victimized by their peers. Social solitude becomes viewed as atypical by the elementary school years (Gavinski-Molina, Coplan, & Younger, 2003).
Models of Risk & Adaptation Emphasize individual child characteristics (e.g., withdrawn behavioral style), environmental contexts (e.g., peer or familial context), and the interaction between these individual and environmental risk and/or protective factors when predicting adjustment outcomes during childhood and adolescence (Magnusson & Stattin, 2006). Peer rejection is a risk factor (Gazelle & Ladd, 2003): Withdrawn & Rejected
Withdrawn & NOT Rejected
*** NS
Internalizing Problems
BUT, Why Do Only Some Withdrawn Children Experience Peer Difficulties? •Models of risk and adaptation do allow for the consideration of multiple risk and/or protective factors (Coie et al., 1993).
•Expression of negative affect places children at risk for peer problems during childhood and adolescence (Hubbard & Dearing, 2004). •Internalizing emotions (e.g., sadness, nervousness)
•Externalizing emotions (e.g., anger, frustration) •Many withdrawn children express more negative, internalizing emotions than their socially competent and non-withdrawn classmates (LaFreniere & Dumas, 1992).
Do expressions of negative, internalizing emotions moderate the longitudinal relations between social withdrawal and peer difficulties? •Age/grade •Sex
Distinguishing between Exclusion & Victimization Not all victimized children are excluded and not all excluded children are victimized. Peer Exclusion:
Peer Victimization:
Social withdrawal and internalizing emotions may set the stage for exclusion if the combination of these behaviors and emotions is viewed by peers as unfavorable and socially inappropriate.
Withdrawn children who also exhibit internalizing emotions may experience greater victimization due to enhanced peer perceptions of “weakness” (Olweus, 1993).
Consideration of Reciprocal Effects Reciprocal effects may exist whereby withdrawn behavior and negative emotion predict peer difficulties, which in turn, predict increases in withdrawn behavior and the expression of negative emotion. Negative Emotion th (6 grade Fall)
Negative Emotion (5th grade Fall)
Social Withdrawal (5th grade Fall)
Evidence of a cycle?
Peer Difficulties (5th grade Spring)
Social Withdrawal (6th grade Fall)
Peer Difficulties (6th grade Spring)
Three Questions (1) Does the expression of negative emotion moderate the longitudinal relations between withdrawn behavior and peer difficulties? (a) Peer Exclusion (b) Peer Victimization
(2) Does negative emotional expression contribute more to the peer difficulties of boys or girls and are there age/grade differences? (3) Do exclusion and victimization predict increases in withdrawn behavior and the expression of negative emotion?
Participants 542 participants were selected from a larger longitudinal study. •260 boys •282 girls
Completed a peer nomination questionnaire at 4 time points: •Time 1: Fall of 5th grade
•Time 2: Spring of 5th grade •Time 3: Fall of 6th grade •Time 4: Spring of 6th grade Diverse sample: 48% of the children were European American, 14% African American, 20% Asian American, 12% Latino, 6% Biracial. Mean age in 5th grade =10.33 years (SD = .52); 11.39 years (SD = .51) in 6th grade.
Peer Nomination Measure The Extended Class Play (ECP; Wojslawowicz Bowker et al., 2006):
Social Withdrawal: (1) Someone who likes being alone; (2) rarely starts conversation; (3) talks quietly or rarely; (4) would rather play alone than with others. Negative Internalizing Emotion: (1) Someone who is usually sad; (2) nervous about class discussions; (3) feelings get hurt easily. Peer Victimization: (1) Someone who has mean things said to him/her; (2) gets picked on; (3) hit/kicked by others.
Peer Rejection/Exclusion: (1) Someone who has trouble making friends; (2) often left out; (3) can’t get others to listen. Items were standardized with grade and sex; All alphas were above .80.
Stability of Measures & Analytic Overview Strong stability of measures over time. For example, correlation between Time 1 and Time 2 peer nominations of withdrawn behaviors was .83, p
