Behavioral Profiles of Anxious Solitary Children: Predicting Peer Relations Trajectories from Third Through Fifth Grades
Abstract
Consistent with a holistic perspective emphasizing the integration of multiple individual characteristics within child systems, it was hypothesized that subgroups of anxious solitary (AS) children differentiated by agreeable, normal, attention-seeking, and externalizing behaviors would demonstrate enduring heterogeneity in peer relations over the last three years of elementary school, a period of relative ecological stability. Subgroup analyses were conducted with 661 children (mean age in third grade = 8.66 years, 51.6% female) who participated in peer sociometrics in the fall and spring of the third through fifth grades. Recess observations were conducted for a subset of these children (n = 227) once in the third and fourth grades and twice in fifth grade. About half of children retained the same subgroup classification from third through fourth and fifth grades--a significant pattern of stability. Results revealed some normative patterns of change (particularly for recess observations) and group-specific patterns of change in peer relations over time. However, the overarching pattern was stability and the preservation of initial between-group differences in peer relations over time. Taken together, results revealed that Agreeable AS children demonstrated significantly superior relational adaptation relative to other AS children, whereas Normative, Attention-seeking, and Externalizing AS children demonstrated successively worse relational adversity. Attention-seeking AS children engaged in particularly high rates of solitary directed behavior and were most ignored by peers. Both Attention-seeking AS and Externalizing AS children were most often victimized by peers.
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- Authors
- Gazelle, H., & Shell, M. D.
- Venue
- Merrill-Palmer Quarterly
- Publisher
- Project MUSE
- Published
- 2017
- Volume
- 63
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 237
- ISSN
- 0272-930X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2769968533
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 1.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Merrill-palmer Quarterly (publishedVersion)
- Human Biology (submittedVersion)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
- 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
- peer relationships, peer rejection, peer victimization, attention seeking, externalizing problems, elementary school students, longitudinal stability
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