Abstract
Anxious withdrawal has been associated consistently with adverse peer experiences. However, research has also shown that there is significant heterogeneity among anxiously withdrawn youth. Further, extant research has focused primarily on negative peer experiences and outcomes; little is known about the more successful social experiences of anxiously withdrawn youth. We explored the possibility that the association between anxious withdrawal and group-level peer outcomes (exclusion, victimization, and popularity) might be moderated by peer-valued behaviors (prosocial behavior), friendship relational attributes, and sex, even after accounting for the effects of being involved in a reciprocal best friendship. Peer nominations of psychosocial functioning, and self-reports of best friendships and friendship quality were collected in a community sample of 684 Portuguese young adolescents. Regression analyses revealed that more anxious withdrawn adolescents showed worst group-level peer outcomes, but that: (a) prosocial behavior buffered the positive association between anxious-withdrawal and peer exclusion, particularly for boys; (b) higher friendship quality was associated with lower risk of peer victimization for more anxious-withdrawn girls, but with a higher risk for more anxious withdrawn boys; and (c) higher friendship conflict buffered the positive association between anxious withdrawal and peer exclusion for boys. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of peer-valued characteristics on the peer group experiences of anxiously withdrawn young adolescents.
Highlights
Anxious withdrawal is a form of social withdrawal comprising the consistent display of solitary, socially reticent, and anxious behavior when encountering both familiar and unfamiliar peers who may be potential social partners (Gazelle, 2008; Rubin et al, 2009; Rubin and Barstead, 2017)
Whilst some evidence increases in anxious withdrawal, others appear to decrease their behavior to normative levels (BoothLaForce and Oxford, 2008; Oh et al, 2008)
Data Analytic Plan The primary goal of the present study was to test the association between anxious withdrawal and peer group outcomes, as well as the potential moderating effects of prosocial behavior, best friendship quality, best friendship conflict and sex
Summary
Anxious withdrawal is a form of social withdrawal comprising the consistent display of solitary, socially reticent, and anxious behavior when encountering both familiar and unfamiliar peers who may be potential social partners (Gazelle, 2008; Rubin et al, 2009; Rubin and Barstead, 2017). When compared to more sociable peers, anxious withdrawn children suffer more interpersonal adversity such as low popularity, peer exclusion and victimization (Coplan et al, 2001; Gazelle and Ladd, 2003; Markovic and Bowker, 2015), as well as more intrapersonal difficulties, such as loneliness and depression (Gazelle and Rudolph, 2004; Markovic and Bowker, 2017). Most studies of anxious withdrawal have focused on its association with adjustment problems and how, and whether, this association may be moderated by negative individual characteristics (Gazelle and Rudolph, 2004; Chen and Santo, 2015; Smith et al, 2017). Children and adolescents who display both anxious solitude and aggressive behaviors have been characterized as extremely prone to experience peer rejection, victimization, and exclusion (Gazelle, 2008; Bowker et al, 2012). Most studies tend to focus on only one behavioral dimension of anxiously withdrawn individuals (withdrawn behavior, victimization, or prosocial behavior), rather than considering how different dimensions co-occur within them (Monahan and Booth-LaForce, 2016)
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