Cited by 1,503Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentBullying, Victimization, and AggressionEarly Childhood Education and Development

Social Withdrawal in Childhood

Open access
Rubin, Kenneth H., Coplan, Robert J., Bowker, Julie C.·2009·Annual Review of Psychology

Abstract

Socially withdrawn children frequently refrain from social activities in the presence of peers.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 From early childhood through to adolescence, socially withdrawn children are concurrently and predictively at risk for a wide range of negative adjustment outcomes, including socio-emotional difficulties (e.g., anxiety, low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.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163642

Cites

506 of 506 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Achenbach TM 1982 Developmental Psychopathology New York Wiley 2
  2. Bowker JC Rubin KH Rose-Krasnor L Booth-LaForce C 2008 Social withdrawal, negative emotion, and peer difficulties during late childhood Manuscr. under review
  3. Crozier R Alden LE 2005 Essentials of Social Anxiety for Clinicians New York Wiley
  4. Rubin KH Hemphill SA Chen X Hastings P Sanson A 2006b Parenting beliefs and behaviors: initial findings from the International Consortium for the Study of Social and Emotional Development (ICSSED) Parental Beliefs, Parenting, and Child Development in Cross-Cultural Perspective Rubin KH Chung OB 81 103 London Psychol. Press
  5. World Health Org 1994 Pocket Guide to the ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders Washington, DC Am Psychiatr Press

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Rubin, K. H., Coplan, R. J., & Bowker, J. C.
Affiliations
  • University of Maryland, College Park (US)
  • Carleton University (CA)
  • University at Buffalo, State University of New York (US)
Venue
Annual Review of Psychology
Published
2009-01-01
Volume
60
Issue
1
Pages
141-171
ISSN
  • 0066-4308 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-2085
OpenAlex
W2112601421
Cited by
1,503
References
506
Citations by year
2026: 90 · 2025: 117 · 2024: 94 · 2023: 114 · 2022: 104 · 2021: 125 · 2020: 102 · 2019: 85 · 2018: 92 · 2017: 68 · 2016: 85 · 2015: 79 · 2014: 77 · 2013: 70 · 2012: 58
FWCI
6.66
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Annual Review of Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Carleton University's Institutional Repository (MacOdrum Library, Carleton University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH058116)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
  • Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
Keywords
social withdrawal, social anxiety, peer rejection, victimization, social-emotional problems, internalizing problems, self-esteem, school problems, teacher-child relationship, academic difficulties, school refusal, developmental pathways, early adolescence, friendship quality
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Affective Symptoms, Child, Child, Preschool, Humans, Infant, Internal-External Control, Learning Disabilities, Object Attachment, Peer Group, Phobic Disorders, Rejection, Psychology, Risk Factors, Shyness, Social Adjustment, Social Behavior, Socialization, Temperament, Parenting, Crime Victims

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review