Poster #232 - Are Dysphoric Children with Depression-Linked Behaviors at Elevated Risk for Peer Relationship Disturbances?

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Interpersonal theories of depression (Coyne, 1976; Rudolph, 2009) suggest that depressed individuals tend to display social-behavioral deficits that interfere with their interpersonal relationships. Indeed, children who are symptomatic for depression exhibit higher levels of aggression and withdrawal and lower levels of social competence (Bell-Dolan et al., 1993). Evidence further suggests that aggressive and withdrawn behaviors, and social skills deficits generate problems in children’s peer relations (Ladd, 2005). Little is known, however, about the extent to which depression-linked behaviors account for peer relationship disturbances above and beyond depressive symptoms. This study’s purpose was to evaluate whether children who present as symptomatic for depression and display depression-linked behaviors are at greater risk for peer relationship problems than children who report experiencing depressive symptoms but do not display depression-linked behaviors.
Participants included 231 (Mage = 9.48, SD = 0.68) 3rd – 5th graders from thirteen classrooms housed within two elementary schools in a metropolitan area of the Southeastern US. We collected self-reports of depressive symptoms and teacher-reports of children’s peer experiences (i.e., peer victimization, peer exclusion) and depression-linked behaviors (i.e., aggression, social withdrawal, social helplessness). We classified children as “dysphoric” if they scored 1 SD above the mean on depressive symptoms, and as belonging to a behavior subgroup (e.g., “aggressive behavior”) if they scored 1 SD above the mean on the depression-linked behavior of interest (e.g., aggression).
We conducted a series of one-way between subjects ANOVAs to evaluate differences among subgroups (“dysphoric only”, “dysphoric + behavior”, “behavior only”, “comparison”) in victimization and exclusion scores. All ANOVAs were significant, suggesting that, for each depression-linked behavior, there was an overall effect of subgroup on victimization and exclusion, respectively: F(3,175) = 25.64, p = .00 and F(3,175) = 31.34, p = .00 for aggression; F(3, 175) = 8.89, p = .00 and F(3,175) = 31.47, p = .00 for social withdrawal; and F(3,174) = 29.52, p = .00 and F(3, 174) = 35.96, p=.00 for social helplessness.
Tukey HSD post hoc comparisons further revealed that children classified as dysphoric and belonging to a behavior subgroup outscored the “dysphoric only” subgroups on measures of victimization and exclusion. Specifically, “dysphoric + aggressive” had higher scores than “dysphoric only” on victimization (M = 1.10, SD = .82 vs. M = .21, SD = .33) and exclusion (M = .65, SD = .48 vs. M = .10, SD = .19); “dysphoric + withdrawn” outscored “dysphoric only” on victimization (M = .75, SD = .86 vs. M = .33, SD = .50) and exclusion (M = .63, SD = .49 vs. M = .08, SD = .16), and “dysphoric + socially helpless” had higher victimization (M = 1.00, SD = .71 vs. M = .10, SD = .21) and exclusion (M = .60, SD = .42 vs. M = .02, SD = .05) scores than “dysphoric only”. Taken together, results suggest that children who are symptomatic for depression and exhibit depression-linked behaviors are at particular risk for peer relationship difficulties.

Authors

• Karen P. Kochel, University of Richmond
  Non-Presenting Author

• Meg Stomski, University of Richmond
  Presenting Author