2-190 - Socially Withdrawn Youth Adapt to School Transitions: Focus on Early Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

This symposium features four empirical investigations on socially withdrawn youths’ adaptation to the transition to middle school or university. The first two investigations focus on the transition to middle school and examine adjustment one to three years pre-transition and two to three years post-transition, whereas the last two investigations focus on the transition to university during the freshman year. The first study examines direction of effect between social withdrawal and peer rejection from fifth to eighth grade, and finds evidence to support a bidirectional transactional model rather than alternative unidirectional models. The second study finds that anxious solitary youth report less social self-efficacy than others in elementary school, but then show a dramatic increase in social self-efficacy after the transition to middle school when peer exclusion is at its lowest. However, this improvement is followed by a decline in social self-efficacy in the two years after the transition as exclusion increases and the membership of social groups becomes better established. The third study finds that fall shyness predicts spring loneliness only among freshman students low in university belongingness, and that participation in extracurricular activities fosters a sense of university belongingness. The fourth study distinguishes between shyness (high social approach and avoidance), avoidance (low approach, high avoidance), and unsociability (low approach and avoidance). Both shy and avoidant youth evidenced difficulty making the transition to university, whereas unsociable youth demonstrated normative adjustment. Taken together, these studies suggest that social withdrawal and shyness present challenges to successful adaptation to school transitions.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chair

• Heidi Gazelle, University of Melbourne

Individual Presentations

• Transactions between Social Withdrawal and Peer Rejection at the Transition from Elementary to Middle School, and Boys Pay More - Presenting Author: Matthew George Barstead, University of Maryland; Danielle Novick, University of Maryland at College Park; Kenneth Rubin, University of Maryland, College Park

• Anxious Solitary Youth Demonstrate Increased Social Self-Efficacy After the Middle School Transition but Then Decline Over Time - Presenting Author: Jack A. Massey, University of Melbourne; Heidi Gazelle, University of Melbourne

• Where do I Fit In? The Influence of a Sense of Belonging on Shyness and Loneliness During the Transition to College - Presenting Author: Madelynn D. Shell, The University of Virginia's College at Wise

• Associations between Social Preference Profiles and College Student Adjustment - Presenting Author: Justin Heinze, University of Michigan; Larry J. Nelson, Brigham Young University