The association between social withdrawal and internalizing problems of children

Abstract

Children identified as low-frequency interactors or socially withdrawn were compared to outgoing children to evaluate whether socially withdrawn children display concurrent internalizing problems. From a sample of 640 children in grades 2–5, 48 children were identified by teachers as lowfrequency interactors and 72 children were selected as outgoing or sociable. When these two groups were compared on a battery of teacher, peer, and selfreport measures that assessed internalizing difficulties, the lowfrequency interactors were found to display concurrent problems in adjustment. Children who rarely interacted with peers were less well liked by their peers, displayed poorer self-concepts, and were more depressed and anxious than sociable children. In contrast to these findings regarding internalizing problems, the two groups did not differ on measures of externalizing problems. The results lend support to the concurrent validity of the low-interaction method of identifying socially withdrawn children.