Ramifications of the Caste System for Young Adolescent Social Withdrawal and Associated Outcomes in Urban India

• In Event: 1-150 - Novel Investigations of Social Withdrawal Variations and Associations with Socio-emotional Adjustment During Adolescence

Integrative Statement

Although recent findings on social withdrawal (i.e., the temperamentally-based behavioural tendency to avoid peers) emphasize the importance of larger cultural contexts both in the expression of behaviour and associated outcomes (e.g., Chen, 2018), little social withdrawal research has evaluated specific features of cultural contexts. For this research, the caste system in India is considered. The caste system originated more than 3,000 years ago and has long shaped virtually every aspect of Indian life, with its severe segregation and oppression of lower-caste families and communities. In spite of recent government efforts to mitigate the negative impacts of lower-caste membership, recent research shows that the caste system remains an influential factor in its social isolation of lower-caste individuals (e.g., Singh, Rai, Alagarajan, & Singh, 2012).

The caste system has not been previously studied in relation to social withdrawal. Because of the long tradition of excluding lower-caste individuals in Indian society, lower-caste youth today may continue to report greater isolation by peers (i.e., peer isolation and peer rejection) and by the self (or social withdrawal) than higher-caste youth. Moreover, because recent evidence suggests that most socially withdrawn behaviours are not viewed positively in India (Bowker & Raja, 2011), we expected a two-fold effect such that the withdrawn behaviours of lower-caste youth would be associated with greater adjustment difficulties relative to those of higher-caste youth. We also considered, in an exploratory manner, whether these hypothesized effects depend on the type of withdrawal (shyness versus unsociability versus avoidance) and gender.

Participants were 466 young adolescents (259 boys; Mage = 13.77, SD = 0.43; 84% reported their religion as Hindu) attending three private middle schools in Hubli, India. In Grade 8 (Spring, Time 1) and Grade 9 (Fall, Time 2), students nominated peers for rejection (“likes least”) and completed self-report measures of social withdrawal and isolation, depressive symptoms, social anxiety, and (un)happiness. They also reported their caste, with responses coded into two groups: (1) General Merit (82%; higher-caste), and (2) Other Backward Caste/ Scheduled Caste/Tribe (18%; lower-caste). At Time 1, ANOVAs (Type II sums of square) showed that lower-caste girls and higher-caste boys reported higher levels of peer isolation, F (1, 209) = 6.26, p = .01, η2 = 0.03, shyness, F (1, 210) = 4.30, p = .04, η2 = 0.02, and unsociability, F (1, 209) =5.55, p = .02, η2 = 0.03, than their female and male counterparts (Table 1; no other caste, gender, or gender-x-caste differences were found). Regression analyses (with simple slope analyses) revealed that several of the concurrent and prospective relations between specific withdrawal subtypes and outcomes differed by caste (see Table 2 for Time 1 results). For example, at Time 1, unsociability was related more strongly to anxiety for lower- (β = 1.18, p = .001) than higher-caste youth (β = 0.57, p = .01). Results point to caste as a significant determinant of within-culture variability in the extent to which young adolescents in India engage in social withdrawal, and when they do, the psychological outcomes they face.

Authors

• Julie C Bowker, University at Buffalo, SUNY
  Presenting Author

• Rebecca G. Etkin, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
  Non-Presenting Author

• Matthew H. Bowker, Medaille College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shanmukh Kamble, Karnatak University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hemapriya Navaindran, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
  Non-Presenting Author