Poster #221 - Anxious Children and Their Friends: The Moderating Effects of Friends' Characteristics on Perceived Loneliness

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Friendships are an important aspect of childhood development that can provide positive provisions, such as companionship, intimacy, and social support (Bagwell & Bukowski, 2018). Children who have a difficult time initiating and maintaining friendships, such as children who are anxious, are at risk for not experiencing the benefits of friendship (Rubin et al., 2015).
Friends generally befriend others similar to themselves, so friendships for children with internalizing problems might not be as positive as they are for their peers. For example, children who are anxious and have a close friendship with children who are also anxious might engage in co-rumination, which has been found to result in negative internalizing outcomes (Rose et al., 2002). Similarly, children with anxious characteristics and their best friends have been found to be more victimized than children without anxious symptoms (Rubin et al., 2006). The goal of this study is to investigate the social characteristics of anxious children’s mutual friends and cliquemates as well as the moderating effects of those characteristics on anxious children’s ratings of loneliness. We are especially interested in the buffering role of positive characteristics.
Participants were 575 students from 47 fourth and fifth grade classrooms with parental consent. Students completed a peer nomination survey in which they were able to nominate any peer (via free-recall) from their grade as their “very close friend”, as well as their best friend (i.e., “now circle your best friend”). Student characteristics were gathered by having students nominate anyone from their grade for various descriptors, including “this person is a fun, interesting, and creative kid” and “look like they want to play with others or join in on a game, but seem shy or afraid?,” using the “class play” format (see Masten et al., 1985). Nominations were standardized within their grade (mean=0; std=1). Student loneliness was assessed with the Peer Network and Dyadic Loneliness Scale (Hoza et al., 2000), in which students rated how they view themselves as compared to other students (i.e.,“some kids hardly ever feel lonely because they have a best friend BUT Other kids wish they had a best friend so they wouldn’t feel so lonely”). Teachers rated participants using the Interpersonal Competence Scale (Cairns et al., 1995).
Within the sample, 14% of the students were nominated as anxious by at least two peers. Of the 14%, 62% had a reciprocated friend compared with 73% of children who were not nominated as anxious. In initial analyses, standardized scores for peer-reported social anxiety correlated positively and significantly with self-reported loneliness, r = .16 (p< . 001), and teacher-reported internalizing problems, r = .27 (p< .001). In subsequent analyses, we will examine (1) social characteristics of mutual friends and cliquemates (i.e., Social Cognitive Mapping, SCM) and (2) the degree to which friends’ and cliquemates’ social characteristics impact the degree to which anxious children report feeling lonely and socially dissatisfied. For instance, does having “fun, interesting” friends and cliquemates buffer a child with higher levels of peer-reported social anxiety, compared to peers, from feeling lonely?

Authors

• John McKirahan, University of Gerogia
  Presenting Author

• Michele Lease, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author