Evidence from research and clinical work supports the notion that social relationships play a crucial role in many areas of psychological development. Social withdrawal constitutes a form of social maladjustment in childhood, and consequently, may have important implications for short-term and long-term prognoses. A recent longitudinal study points to the possibility that these children are at risk for internalizing disorders, such as anxiety and depression. Yet it is unclear which psychological variables account for the possible relationship between social withdrawal and internalizing disorders. Numerous theorists and investigators have shown that cognitive factors may be central to the development of psychopathology. The present study hypothesizes that maladaptive information processing and internalizing problems may be associated with social withdrawal. A multi-group comparison therefore examined children's self-schemas, as measured by self-perceptions and recall of positive and negative descriptors, and evaluated their behavioural/emotional functioning. The complete sample consisted of 132 sixth and seventh grade children recruited from five elementary schools in the Ottawa-Carleton region. After being identified by peer nominations in Phase 1, a between-group design was utilized in Phase 2 to compare 40 withdrawn children, 51 average children, and 41 aggressive children. Multivariate analysis of variance was conducted to assess group differences in current status with regard to self-perceptions, recall memory of descriptors, and behavioural adjustment. As predicted, socially withdrawn children had less positive self-perceptions, more negative self-perceptions, and significantly higher internalizing scores than did average and aggressive children. No significant differences emerged, however, with respect to the recall of positive and negative descriptors. Implications of the present findings and directions for future research are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/10093 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Burgess, Kim B. |
| Contributors | Younger, Alastair |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 147 p. |
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