The Social Cognitions of Socially Withdrawn Children

Self-efficacy, academic performance and school transition among orphaned adolescents in southern Uganda

INTRODUCTION

Self-efficacy is critical to adolescents' development. This study examined the relationship between self-efficacy, academic performance and transition to post primary education among orphaned adolescents in southern Uganda.

METHODS

Longitudinal data from a cluster randomized clinical trial for orphaned adolescents was analyzed. Adolescents (N = 1410) between 10 and 16 years at study initiation, in their last three years of primary schooling were eligible to participate in the study. Data collected at baseline, 12, 24, 36 and 48-months follow-up were analyzed. Ordinary least square and logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between adolescents' self-efficacy, academic performance -as measured by Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) scores, and transition to post primary education.

RESULTS

Results indicate that adolescents' self-efficacy was associated with better PLE grades (lower scores indicate better performance [b = -0.05, 95 % CI = -0.09, -0.01, p≤0.01]) and a higher likelihood of transition to post primary education (OR = 1.02, 95 % CI = -0.09, 1.00, 1.03, p≤0.01).

CONCLUSION

Findings point to the importance of integrating components focused on promoting self-efficacy among adolescents -especially those made vulnerable by poverty and HIV/AIDS in low resource settings.

Five Approaches to Understanding Interpersonal Competence: A Review and Integration

Social connectedness has been linked to beneficial outcomes across domains, ages, and cultures. However, not everyone receives these benefits, as there are large individual differences in the capacities required to create and sustain functional interpersonal relationships. A great deal of research has been devoted to assessing and understanding these differences, often focusing on how competent interpersonal behavior renders it more likely that one will succeed interpersonally. The current paper examines five relevant approaches that have emerged from personality (global traits), social (social cognition), clinical (social skills interventions), developmental (social information processing), and industrial/organizational (situation judgment) areas of psychology. A comparison of these approaches highlights important considerations related to bandwidth and fidelity, whether the focus should be on overt behavior or underlying processes, and whether to emphasize tendencies or their effectiveness. The review concludes with calls for greater integration efforts, which can capitalize on strengths inherent to different approaches.

Relations Among Anxious Solitude, Peer Exclusion, and Maternal Overcontrol from 3rd Through 7th Grade: Peer Effects on Youth, Youth Evocative Effects on Mothering, and the Indirect Effect of Peers on Mothering via Youth

This study evaluated a transactional model of youth anxious solitude and peer and maternal relations from 3rd through 7th grade. Participants were 230 American youth (57% girls) selected for longitudinal study from a screening sample recruited from public schools (N = 688). Peers reported on anxious solitude and peer exclusion and youth reported on their mother's overcontrol annually. In an autoregressive cross-lagged panel analytic model peer exclusion predicted incremental increases in anxious solitude during elementary school and after the middle school transition. Additionally, anxious solitude evoked incremental increases in maternal overcontrol during elementary school. Finally, anxious solitude in 4th grade mediated the positive indirect relation between peer exclusion in 3rd grade and maternal overcontrol in 5th grade. These results suggests that peer relations can indirectly effect mothering via increased youth anxious solitude over time. Taken together, evidence supports a Transactional Model of anxious solitude development. Additionally, consistent with previous evidence, elevated youth anxious solitude at the end of elementary school in 5th grade predicted decreased peer exclusion after the middle school transition in 6th grade when youth experience a fresh start with peer relations. Nonetheless, youth (especially girls) demonstrated greater year-to-year stability in anxious solitude across the first two years of middle school than in the last three years of elementary school.

Getting to the heart of childhood empathy: Relations with shyness and respiratory sinus arrhythmia

Although prior studies have found that shyness and empathy are inversely related and that well-regulated children tend to express empathic behaviors more often, little work has assessed combinations of these factors in predicting affective and cognitive empathy in early childhood. The authors examined relations among shyness, resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and observed affective and cognitive empathy in a sample of 130 typically developing children (M_age  = 63.5 months, SD = 12.2; 62 males). Shyness was assessed by observing children's behaviors during a self-presentation task, and this observed measure was then combined with a maternal report of children's temperamental shyness. Children's shyness predicted lower levels of both affective and cognitive responses to an experimenter feigning an injury. Resting RSA moderated the relation between children's shyness and observed empathy such that relatively higher shyness combined with lower RSA levels conferred the lowest levels of cognitive empathy. Children who were relatively low in shyness exhibited similar levels of cognitive empathy across different levels of RSA. However, this moderation was not found when predicting children's affective empathy. Our results suggest that not all shy children are alike in terms of their empathic behaviors: shy children who are physiologically dysregulated appear to have difficulties exploring and/or processing others' pain.

Young children's behavioral and neural responses to peer feedback relate to internalizing problems

Despite the importance of peer experiences during early childhood for socioemotional development, few studies have examined how young children process and respond to peer feedback. The current study used an ecologically valid experimental paradigm to study young children's processing of peer social acceptance or rejection. In this paradigm, 118 children (50% boys; M_age = 72.92 months; SD = 9.30; Range_age = 53.19-98.86 months) sorted pictures of unknown, similar-aged peers into those with whom they wished or did not wish to play. They were later told how these peers sorted them, such that in half of the cases the presumed peer accepted or rejected the participant. When rejected children reported more distress (sadness), they were slower to rate their affective response, and exhibited increased mid-frontal EEG theta power, compared to when accepted. Moreover, we found that children's affective responses and EEG theta power for rejection predicted internalizing problems, especially if they displayed an attention bias to social threat. Our results further validate and illustrate the utility of this paradigm for studying how young children process and respond to peer feedback.

Longitudinal Relations between Behavioral Inhibition and Social Information Processing: Moderating Role of Maternal Supportive Reactions to Children's Emotions

Utilizing multiple measures of interpretive biases, the current study examined the roles of toddlers' behavioral inhibition (BI) and maternal supportive reactions to children's negative emotions in relation to children's interpretive biases across middle to late childhood. Toddlers' BI was measured during several laboratory tasks (n = 248) at 2 and 3 years of age. Mothers reported on their reactions to children's negative emotional expressions when children were 7 years old (n = 203), and children's interpretations of social cues were assessed at 7 and 10 years of age (ns = 179 and 161, respectively). Toddlers with high levels of BI expressed less positivity towards social engagement with unfamiliar peers during discussion of ambiguous social situations. Further, children with high BI were less likely to attribute the cause of negative social situations to external factors, particularly when mothers were less accepting of children's negative emotional displays. Findings are discussed in terms of cognition related to the interpretation of ambiguous and threat-related social situations among temperamentally at-risk children.

Affiliation with Socially Withdrawn Groups and Children's Social and Psychological Adjustment

This 1-year longitudinal study examined the effects of membership in socially withdrawn peer groups on children's social and psychological adjustment in a sample of 979 children (417 boys, 562 girls, M age = 11.84 years). Data on children's social and psychological adjustment and problems were collected from peer nominations and self-reports in the fall and spring of a single academic year. Using the Social Cognitive Map, 162 peer groups were identified. Multilevel analyses showed that affiliation with withdrawn groups negatively predicted social competence and school attitude, and positively predicted victimization and depression. The results suggest that affiliation with socially withdrawn groups is a risk factor for the development of social and psychological problems.

The Impact of the Project K Youth Development Program on Self-Efficacy: A Randomized Controlled Trial

A key issue for youth development programs is whether the learning they provide is transferred to participants' daily lives. It is also important that they are effective for the diverse range of participants they attract. This study used a randomized controlled trial design to measure the impact of Project K, a New Zealand-based youth development program, on academic and social self-efficacy. Project K combines a 3-week wilderness adventure, a 10 day community service component, and 1 year of mentoring to promote positive growth in 14-15 year olds with low self-efficacy. At baseline, the evaluation included 600 Project K (46 % female) and 577 Control participants (48 % female) and revealed that Project K was effective in improving both social and academic self-efficacy from pre- to post-program with effects being sustained 1 year later. Parents' perceptions of changes in the participants' interpersonal skills supported these findings. Differential program effects were found across participant subgroups, particularly 1 year after program completion. The implications of these differences are discussed.

Classroom Context and the Relations Between Social Withdrawal and Peer Victimization

This study examined the relationship between social withdrawal (isolation and unsociability) and peer victimization by exploring the moderating influences of gender, classroom norms of social withdrawal, individualism, and collectivism. One hundred fifty-eight adolescents (Mage = 14.11, SD = 1.10; 46.3% boys) in 7th and 8th grade from Curitiba, Brazil, completed peer assessments of isolation, unsociability, peer victimization, and self-reports of classroom individualism and collectivism. Isolation and unsociability were aggregated into classroom norms. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Isolation and unsociability positively predicted victimization. Unsociability was a positive predictor of victimization in low-unsociability classrooms. Isolation was negatively associated with victimization in low-isolation classes. The relationship between isolation and victimization was weaker in more collectivistic classes. The relationship between unsociability and peer victimization was strongest among boys in classes low in individualism. This study provides further support that social withdrawal has consequences for adolescents’ socioemotional development which vary by classroom context.

Children's responses to hypothetical provocation by peers: coordination of assertive and aggressive strategies

Children often respond to aggression by peers with assertive bids or aggressive retaliation. Little is known, however, about whether and how children coordinate these strategies across different types of provocation. The present study examined endorsement of aggressive and assertive responses to hypothetical physical, relational, and verbal provocation in a sample of lower-income children (N = 402, M age = 10.21, SD = 1.46). Latent-profile analysis revealed 3-class models for both aggression and assertion, each reflecting low, moderate, and high levels of endorsement. There was no association between children's reported use of aggression and assertion. For example, children who endorsed high levels of aggression were equally likely to be classified as low, moderate, or high on assertive responding. For both assertion and aggression, parental ratings of children's externalizing behavior and social skills differed across the low and high groups. No such differences were found between the low and moderate groups, despite the latter groups endorsing markedly higher levels of assertive and aggressive responses. This pattern of findings may be due, in part, to the situation specificity of children's responding. Our findings hint at the complexity of children's behavioral repertoires and contribute to a growing literature that suggests the need for intervention models that consider both social skills and social situations.

Relationships: empirical contribution. Understanding personality pathology in adolescents: the five factor model of personality and social information processing

This study seeks to integrate two research traditions that lie at the base of the understanding of personality pathology in adolescents. The first research tradition refers to normal personality according to the Five Factor Model (FFM). The second tradition specifies the key feature of personality disorder as the capacity to mentalize, which can be reflected in Social Information Processing (SIP). In a clinical sample of 96 adolescents, the authors investigated response generation, coping strategy, and memories of past frustrating experiences as part of SIP, as mediator in the relationship between personality and personality pathology, and a possible moderating role of personality on the relationship between SIP and personality pathology. The hypothesized mediation, by which the effects of personality dimensions on personality pathology was expected to be mediated by SIP variables, was found only for the effect of Neuroticism, most specifically on BPD, which appeared to be mediated by memories the patients had about past frustrating conflict situations with peers. Some moderating effects of personality on the relationship between SIP variables and personality pathology were found, suggesting that high Agreeableness and sometimes low Neuroticism can buffer this relationship. These results suggest that personality dimensions and social cognitions both independently and together play a role in adolescents' personality pathology.

Cognitive indicators of social anxiety in youth: a structural equation analysis

Previous studies have demonstrated significant relationships among various cognitive variables such as negative cognition, self-efficacy, and social anxiety. Unfortunately, few studies focus on the role of cognition among youth, and researchers often fail to use domain-specific measures when examining cognitive variables. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine domain-specific cognitive variables (i.e., socially oriented negative self-referent cognition and social self-efficacy) and their relationships to social anxiety in children and adolescents using structural equation modeling techniques. A community sample of children and adolescents (n=245; 55.9% female; 83.3% Caucasian, 9.4% African American, 2% Asian, 2% Hispanic, 2% "other," and 1.2% not reported) completed questionnaires assessing social cognition and social anxiety symptomology. Three latent variables were created to examine the constructs of socially oriented negative self-referent cognition (as measured by the SONAS scale), social self-efficacy (as measured by the SEQSS-C), and social anxiety (as measured by the SPAI-C and the Brief SA). The resulting measurement model of latent variables fit the data well. Additionally, consistent with the study hypothesis, results indicated that social self-efficacy likely mediates the relationship between socially oriented negative self-referent cognition and social anxiety, and socially oriented negative self-referent cognition yields significant direct and indirect effects on social anxiety. These findings indicate that socially oriented negative cognitions are associated with youth's beliefs about social abilities and the experience of social anxiety. Future directions for research and study limitations, including use of cross-sectional data, are discussed.

Associations Between Behavioral Inhibition and Children's Social Problem Solving Behavior During Social Exclusion

The current study examined the associations between the early childhood temperament of behavioral inhibition and children's displays of social problem-solving (SPS) behavior during social exclusion. During toddlerhood (ages 2-3), maternal report and behavioral observations of behavioral inhibition were collected. At age 7, children's SPS behaviors were observed during a laboratory social exclusion task based on the commonly used Cyberball game. Results showed that behavioral inhibition was positively associated with displayed social withdrawal and negatively associated with assertive behavior during the observed social exclusion task at 7 years of age. These results add to our understanding of inhibited children's SPS behaviors during social exclusion and provide evidence for the associations between toddler temperament and children's social behavior during middle childhood.

Social Problem-Solving in Early Childhood: Developmental Change and the Influence of Shyness

The purpose of this study was to examine developmental change and the influence of shyness on social problem-solving (SPS). At 24, 36, and 48 months, children (N=570) were observed while interacting with an unfamiliar peer during an SPS task and at 24 months, maternal report of shyness was collected. Results showed that across the full sample, children displayed low but stable levels of withdrawn SPS and increasing levels of SPS competence over development. In addition, results showed that 24-month shyness was associated with high-increasing and high-decreasing withdrawn SPS trajectories compared to the low-increasing withdrawn SPS trajectory. Shyness was also associated with the low-increasing compared to the high-increasing SPS competence trajectory. Findings demonstrate the development of SPS competence over early childhood, as well as the influence of early shyness on this developmental course, with some shy children showing improvement in SPS skills and others continuing to show SPS difficulties over time.

Differentiating high-functioning autism and social phobia

Both high-functioning autism (HFA) and social phobia (SP) involve profound social interaction deficits. Although these disorders share some similar symptoms, they are conceptualized as distinct. Because both HFA and SP are defined behaviorally, the degree of overlap between the two disorders may result in misinterpretation of symptoms. However, the deficits in each disorder differ, particularly in areas of social interaction, emotion recognition and expression, and communication. This paper reviews the literature that informs our current understanding of the behavioral overlaps and differences in HFA and SP. The review also addresses the implications of our current knowledge of these two disorders for differential diagnosis, treatment, and future research. Interdisciplinary, developmentally-oriented research may help extend current approaches to HFA and SP.

The relationship among self-efficacy, negative self-referent cognitions, and social anxiety in children: a multiple mediator model

Evidence suggests that general self-efficacy, an individual's beliefs about his global abilities, and social self-efficacy, an individual's beliefs in his ability to navigate social situations, are strongly connected to levels of social anxiety. Negative self-statements, also known as negative self-referent cognitions, have also been linked with levels of social anxiety. Although self-efficacy and negative self-statements have been shown to be important variables in the phenomenology and maintenance of social anxiety in children, they have yet to be examined in conjunction with one another. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between negative self-referent cognitions and self-efficacy and to examine both general self-efficacy and social self-efficacy as mediator variables in the relationship between negative self-statements and social anxiety. Results were based on a sample of 126 children ages 11 to 14 years. A significant association between negative self-statements and both general self-efficacy and social self-efficacy was established. Results also indicated that general self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between negative self-statements and social anxiety; however, contrary to hypotheses, social self-efficacy did not mediate the relationship between negative self-statements and social anxiety. Implications and future recommendations are discussed.

When friends disappoint: boys' and girls' responses to transgressions of friendship expectations

In this study, the prevailing view that girls are pervasively more skilled in their friendships than boys was challenged by examining whether girls respond more negatively than boys when a friend violates core friendship expectations. Fourth- and fifth-grade children (n = 267) responded to vignettes depicting transgressions involving a friend's betrayal, unreliability, or failure to provide support or help. Results indicated that girls were more troubled by the transgressions, more strongly endorsed various types of negative relationship interpretations of the friend's actions, and reported more anger and sadness than did boys. Girls also endorsed revenge goals and aggressive strategies just as much as boys. These findings lead to a more complex view of boys' and girls' friendship competencies.

Attention biases to threat link behavioral inhibition to social withdrawal over time in very young children

Behaviorally inhibited children display a temperamental profile characterized by social withdrawal and anxious behaviors. Previous research, focused largely on adolescents, suggests that attention biases to threat may sustain high levels of behavioral inhibition (BI) over time, helping link early temperament to social outcomes. However, no prior studies examine the association between attention bias and BI before adolescence. The current study examined the interrelations among BI, attention biases to threat, and social withdrawal already manifest in early childhood. Children (N=187, 83 Male, M (age)=61.96 months) were characterized for BI in toddlerhood (24 & 36 months). At 5 years, they completed an attention bias task and concurrent social withdrawal was measured. As expected, BI in toddlerhood predicted high levels of social withdrawal in early childhood. However, this relation was moderated by attention bias. The BI-withdrawal association was only evident for children who displayed an attention bias toward threat. The data provide further support for models associating attention with socioemotional development and the later emergence of clinical anxiety.

The effect of a solution-focused approach to improve self-efficacy in socially withdrawn school children: a non-randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Socially withdrawn children can improve their social skills through increased self-efficacy. Previous studies have shown that socially withdrawn children are prone to low self-efficacy and problems at school. Therefore, we investigated the effects of an intervention on the self-efficacy of these school children. A solution-focused approach may be an appropriate tool in such interventions.

OBJECTIVES

To explore the effects of a group intervention based on a solution-focused approach on the self-efficacy of a group of socially withdrawn children and to explore possible sex-based differences.

DESIGN

This interventional study was a non-randomized controlled trial, with experimental and control groups.

SETTING

The study was performed within the school health services of 14 primary schools in eastern Norway from 2006 to 2008.

PARTICIPANTS

School children who were aged 12-13 years and identified as socially withdrawn participated: 156 at baseline, but 6 dropped out before the first measurement and an additional 6 did not complete the second measurement.

METHODS

The participants completed questionnaires assessing general self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and assertive self-efficacy at three different times. The first time was at baseline, the second was immediately after the 6-week intervention period, and the third was 3 months after the intervention.

RESULTS

The general self-efficacy scores increased significantly among girls in the experimental group immediately after the intervention compared with those of the control group. The effect size was 0.60. No significant change was observed among the boys at the same time. From baseline to 3 months after the intervention, the general self-efficacy scores increased for both sexes in the experimental group and also in the control group. The assertive self-efficacy of the boys in the experimental group also increased (effect size, 0.29).

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that socially withdrawn children can benefit from a solution-focused approach group intervention and reach their goals, probably because they learn from each other and share their feelings, experiences, and support. These results indicate that a solution-focused approach may be suitable for school nurses in their work with children with special needs. Solution-focused groups are also recommended for use in school health services.

The Latent Structure of Youth Responses to Peer Provocation

This study examined whether the three categories often applied to children’s behavior—aggressive, avoidant, and assertive—actually capture the structure of a naturalistic sample of youth behavior coded at a more micro level. A sample of lower-income youth (N = 392; M age = 12.69, SD = 0.95) completed a new multiple-choice measure asking them to select responses to scenarios depicting physical, verbal, and relational provocation by a peer. Youth responses to the vignettes showed the expected associations with self-reported aggression and regulation of anger, providing preliminary evidence for the convergent validity of the measure. Factor analysis confirmed that responses loaded on three factors: aggression, avoidance, and assertion. Model fit was adequate (RMSEA = .028) and cross-validated in a second sample (RMSEA = .039). Several types of responses loaded on two factors suggesting that some strategies that youth use to manage provocation are not “pure” examples of these broadband categories. Implications for conceptualization and measurement of youth social behavior are discussed.

Peer experiences of anxious and socially withdrawn youth: an integrative review of the developmental and clinical literature

Prior research indicates that both anxious youth and socially withdrawn youth tend to experience challenges and difficulties in various aspects of their peer relationships and social functioning. While clinical psychology researchers have examined how anxiety relates to peer experiences using normative and clinically anxious samples, developmental psychologists have focused primarily on the peer experiences of shy and withdrawn children. Research from these two fields has progressed on related yet separate paths, producing similar results despite using different terminology and assessment techniques. The purpose of this review is to bring together the developmental and clinical bodies of literature on the peer experiences of anxious and socially withdrawn youth by identifying common themes and unique contributions of each discipline. Studies reviewed focus specifically on the peer constructs of acceptance, friendship, peer victimization, social skills, and social-cognitive processes. Limitations including methodological inconsistencies and insufficient examination of age-, gender-, and ethnicity-related issues are identified. Recommendations for future collaborations between developmental and clinical researchers as well as implications for interventions targeting the peer relations of anxious and withdrawn youth are discussed.

Attachment, Social Information Processing, and Friendship Quality of Early Adolescent Girls and Boys

Sixth-graders (N = 223; 109 girls) completed questionnaires assessing their attachment security with their mothers and fathers, their social information processing (SIP) when faced with ambiguously caused hypothetical negative events involving a close friend, and the quality of the relationship with that friend. Aspects of more maladaptive SIP were significantly related to lower levels of security. The overall pattern of results did not provide strong evidence for mediation, although boys' anger did tend to mediate the relation between attachment to mother and friendship quality. Results are consistent with attachment theory and suggest that the mechanisms connecting attachment and friendship are specific with regard to the relationships boys and girls have with their fathers and mothers.

Parents, peers, and social withdrawal in childhood: a relationship perspective

In this chapter, the authors review the history of the Waterloo Longitudinal Project (WLP), the first longitudinal study (1980-1992) dedicated to the study of social withdrawal, its correlates, and consequences. Theories underlying the WLP are described, as are its empirical findings. Recent research from other labs that has extended the findings of the original WLP is briefly described. The authors' research that draws on the findings of WLP are noted as well. An underlying theme in this work is that relationships (and interactions) with parents and friends can serve as protective or exacerbating factors in the developmental course of social withdrawal and its concomitants (including social anxiety).

Social anxiety in childhood: bridging developmental and clinical perspectives

In this introductory chapter, guided by developmental psychopathology and developmental science as overarching integrative theoretical frameworks, the authors define three constructs related to social anxiety in childhood (behavioral inhibition, anxious solitude/withdrawal, and social anxiety disorder) and analyze commonalities and differences in the content and assessment of these constructs. They then highlight controversies between developmental and clinical approaches to the definition of these constructs, the role of biology in social anxiety, age of onset of social anxiety, information processing biases in social anxiety, heterogeneity in the social and emotional adjustment of socially anxious children, and targets of intervention for childhood social anxiety.

Social withdrawal in childhood

Socially withdrawn children frequently refrain from social activities in the presence of peers. The lack of social interaction in childhood may result from a variety of causes, including social fear and anxiety or a preference for solitude. From early childhood through to adolescence, socially withdrawn children are concurrently and predictively at risk for a wide range of negative adjustment outcomes, including socio-emotional difficulties (e.g., anxiety, low self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and internalizing problems), peer difficulties (e.g., rejection, victimization, poor friendship quality), and school difficulties (e.g., poor-quality teacher-child relationships, academic difficulties, school avoidance). The goals of the current review are to (a) provide some definitional, theoretical, and methodological clarity to the complex array of terms and constructs previously employed in the study of social withdrawal; (b) examine the predictors, correlates, and consequences of child and early-adolescent social withdrawal; and (c) present a developmental framework describing pathways to and from social withdrawal in childhood.

Close friendship as understood by socially withdrawn, anxious early adolescents

The aim of the present study was to explore the social cognitions of socially withdrawn anxious early-adolescents regarding the concept of friendship. From a pool of children referred to an after-school social skills and social contact program, 38 withdrawn/anxious participants were identified and matched with community controls. Interviews regarding their expectations of a best friend revealed that withdrawn/anxious participants tended to focus on their own needs in their concepts of friendship and frequently referred to friendship as a source of help. They also tended to ascribe their best friendship to the circumstantial interactions of classmates or neighbors. Control participants more frequently mentioned the intimacy of a close friendship, which is considered a core defining feature of true friendship. Within the community sample, older participants displayed a more mature understanding of friendship, whereas there were no age effects within the socially anxious group.