Poster #142 - Parental Control and Social Withdrawal Across Seven Adolescent Years: A Developmental Cascade Model

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Background. Social withdrawal is associated with increased risk of loneliness, peer rejection, friendlessness, and social-emotional adjustment problems for children (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006); low academic achievement, poor self-efficacy and self-esteem, depression, and anxiety for adolescents (Kerr & Stattin, 2000; Prior, Smart, Sanson, & Oberklaid, 2000); and suicidal ideation (Plunkett, Henry, Robinson, Behnke, & Falcon, 2007) and adjustment problems for adults (e.g., Kim, Rapee, Oh, & Moon, 2008). Because of these risks, it is important to understand the developmental trajectory of social withdrawal.

One way to understand the etiology of social withdrawal link is to examine the interaction between children’s fearful/wary characteristics and the family environment. Past research suggests that parental over-control and social withdrawal mutually influence each other from early childhood (Degnan et al., 2008), elementary school-age (Rubin et al., 2002) and pre-adolescence (Booth-LaForce et al., 2012). These kinds of patterns have not been examined longitudinally across adolescence, however, despite the fact that both social withdrawal and parental control are salient constructs during this time. The current study uses a developmental cascade model to examine the relations among parental control and social withdrawal from early to late adolescence in a large, non-clinical sample. We assess both mothers’ and father’s parenting and examine behavioral and psychological control separately which, to our knowledge, has not yet been done in the study of adolescent social withdrawal.

Research question. Is there a developmental cascade pattern that exists between parental psychological control, behavioral control, and social withdrawal across seven years?

Method. Participants were 534 adolescents (49% females) and their parents recruited as part of a larger study. Data were collected in 6st, 7nd, 8th, 9th, 11th, and 12rd grades.

Social withdrawal was assessed using the social withdrawal subscale from at least two of three informants: teachers’ reports on the CBCL- TRF, mothers’ reports on the CBCL- PRF, and/or adolescent reports on the CBCL-YSR (Achenbach, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c).

Parents’ behavioral control and psychological control were assessed via adolescent interviews in 8th and 11th grades. Fathers’ and mothers’ control scores were combined as latent variables for psychological and behavioral control, respectively (loadings ranged from .52 to.84).

Preliminary results and implications. Results are summarized in Table 1 and Figure 1. No gender differences were found in the relation among study variables. Parental psychological control, social withdrawal, and their relations with each other were relative stable over time. Although behavioral control did not predict social withdrawal, as seen previous studies, parents with socially withdrawn adolescent were less likely to subsequently use high levels of behavioral control. Additionally, previous parental psychological control negatively predicted later behavioral control indirectly, through social withdrawal. Findings in the current study can enrich understanding the family environment’s role in the development and maintenance of social withdrawal from a life-span perspective.

Authors

• Hua Lin, Oklahoma State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amanda Wiginton Harrist, Oklahoma State University
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer Lansford, Duke University
  Non-Presenting Author

• John Bates, Indiana University - Bloomington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gregory S. Pettit, Auburn University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kenneth A. Dodge, Duke University
  Non-Presenting Author