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Trajectories of Social Withdrawal from Middle Childhood to Early Adolescence

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Abstract

Heterogeneity and individual differences in the developmental course of social withdrawal were examined longitudinally in a community sample (N = 392). General Growth Mixture Modeling (GGMM) was used to identify distinct pathways of social withdrawal, differentiate valid subgroup trajectories, and examine factors that predicted change in trajectories within subgroups. Assessments of individual (social withdrawal), interactive (prosocial behavior), relationship (friendship involvement, stability and quality, best friend’s withdrawal and exclusion/victimization) and group- (exclusion/victimization) level characteristics were used to define growth trajectories from the final year of elementary school, across the transition to middle school, and then to the final year of middle school (fifth-to-eighth grades). Three distinct trajectory classes were identified: low stable, increasing, and decreasing. Peer exclusion, prosocial behavior, and mutual friendship involvement differentiated class membership. Friendlessness, friendship instability, and exclusion were significant predictors of social withdrawal for the increasing class, whereas lower levels of peer exclusion predicted a decrease in social withdrawal for the decreasing class.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development, University of Maryland, 3304 Benjamin Building, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Wonjung Oh & Kenneth H. Rubin

  2. Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Julie C. Bowker

  3. Department of Family and Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Cathryn Booth-LaForce

  4. Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharine’s, ON, Canada

    Linda Rose-Krasnor

  5. Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    Brett Laursen

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  1. Wonjung Oh
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  2. Kenneth H. Rubin
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  3. Julie C. Bowker
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  4. Cathryn Booth-LaForce
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  5. Linda Rose-Krasnor
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  6. Brett Laursen
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Correspondence to Kenneth H. Rubin.

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Oh, W., Rubin, K.H., Bowker, J.C. et al. Trajectories of Social Withdrawal from Middle Childhood to Early Adolescence. J Abnorm Child Psychol 36, 553–566 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-007-9199-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-007-9199-z

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