Poster #58 - Loneliness, Social Anxiety, and Depression in Adolescence: Three Distinct Constructs or Just a Single One?

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

OBJECTIVES
Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to developing feelings of loneliness, social anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms (Alfano, & Beidel, 2011; Costello et al., 2006; Qualter et al., 2015). These three internalizing symptoms are defined as separate entities given the tacit assumption that they represent distinguishable types of problem behavior (Fung, Paterson, & Alden, 2017). Nevertheless, these symptoms show high co-occurrence rates (Epkins & Heckler, 2011; Mahon, Yarcheski, Yarcheski, Cannella, & Hanks, 2006; Zahn-Waxler, Klimes-Dougan, & Slattery, 2000) and there is notable overlap in the interpersonal behavior of individuals experiencing these internalizing symptoms (e.g., poor social skills, heightened sensitivity for potential social threat, and social withdrawal; Alden & Taylor, 2004; Ollendick & Hirshfeld-Becker, 2002; Qualter et al., 2015). In addition, similar risk factors have been identified for the three internalizing problems. Based on all these findings, one might expect that loneliness, social anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms originate from or are maintained through similar interpersonal processes. Therefore, questions concerning the actual distinctiveness of these symptoms are legitimate.

METHOD
The present study used three general population samples of Belgian adolescents to test the robustness of findings. Samples 1, 2, and 3 comprised 549 adolescents (Mage = 14.82, SD = 0.79; 62.66% girls), 1,110 adolescents (Mage = 13.79, SD = 0.94; 49.01% girls), and 1,423 adolescents (Mage = 13.58, SD = 0.96; 52.74% girls), respectively. In Samples 1 and 2, adolescents attended Grades 7, 8, and 9 and in Sample 3, adolescents attended Grades 9 and 10. Adolescents filled out the Loneliness and Aloneness Scale for Children and Adolescents (LACA; Marcoen et al., 1987), the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A; La Greca & Lopez, 1998) and the Child Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs, 2003) or the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted in MPlus Version 7.13 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2007).

RESULTS
Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) using Geomin rotation yielded a similar three-factor solution across the three samples. Specifically, in all three samples, a substantial number of items of the fear of negative evaluation subscale of the SAS-A cross-loaded on both the social anxiety symptoms factor and the depressive symptoms factor. Subsequent confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) indicated that, following the rules of thumb of Hu and Bentler (1999), the three-factor solution yielded the best fit to the data in all three samples (see Table 1). All factor loadings were significant at p < .001 and substantial (i.e., > .32; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001) and the factors were moderately to strongly correlated. (See Table 2 for the EFA and CFA results of Sample 1).

CONCLUSION
The results of this study consistently indicate that loneliness, social anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms are relatively independent internalizing symptoms. However, fear of negative evaluation, which is considered a key feature of social anxiety symptoms, was associated with depressive symptoms as well. These findings are an important contribution to the literature on the co-occurrence of loneliness, social anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms in adolescence.

Authors

• Sofie Danneel, KU Leuven
  Presenting Author

• Patricia Bijttebier, KU Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author

• Margot Bastin, KU Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephan Claes, KU Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hilde Colpin, KU Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author

• Wim Van Den Noortgate, KU Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karla Van Leeuwen, KU Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karine Verschueren, KU Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author

• Luc Goossens, KU Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author