Poster #62 - Developmental Trajectories of Social Withdrawal across Childhood to Adolescence of Korean Children: Effects of Parenting

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

This study aimed to examine the developmental trajectories of social withdrawal in the transition from Korean childhood to early adolescence and to predict the effects of parenting behaviors (intrusiveness, monitoring and inconsistency) on the trajectories of social withdrawal. The participants were 1,893 Korean children (975 boys and 918 girls) from the Korea Children & Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS) started in 2010 by the National Youth Policy Institute (NYPI). For the analysis of the developmental trajectories of social withdrawal, the 4th (4th grade in elementary school), the 6th (6th grade in elementary school), and 7th (1st grade in middle school) wave data were used. Parenting behaviors (4th) and child’s sex and social withdrawal (3th) were included as predictors and as control variables, respectively. Latent growth modeling analyses with Mplus 8 were conducted to investigate the developmental trajectories of social withdrawal.
The results and implications of this study were as follows. First, social withdrawal increased over time between the fourth grade in elementary school and the first grade in middle school. Also the higher the intercept of social withdrawal, the more slowly the social withdrawal increased. It implied that early interventions need to be provided to prevent social withdrawal during the transition from childhood to early adolescence. Second, when predicting the intercept of social withdrawal, intrusive parenting as well as parental monitoring had significant effects. In other words, intrusive parenting had a positive effect on the initial level of social withdrawal while monitoring parenting behavior had a negative influence on the initial level of social withdrawal. Specifically, the intercept of social withdrawal was found to be high when the level of intrusive parenting was high. However, a higher level of parental monitoring resulted in a lower intercept of social withdrawal. These suggested that in order to reduce the social withdrawal of Korean childhood, it is necessary to help parents monitor their child with encouraging their independence. Third, in relation to the slope of social withdrawal, intrusive parenting had negative effects on the slope of social withdrawal and parental monitoring had positive effects on the slope of social withdrawal. That is, excessive intrusive parenting and less monitoring reduced the rate of change of social withdrawal. In the fourth grade in elementary school, when the parent interfered excessively in their child's life and did not provide adequate monitoring, the initial level of social withdrawal was already high thereby leading the rate of change not to occur relatively large. This implied that at least in the fourth grade in elementary school, parents should monitor their child's behavior while respecting independence. In contrast, with respect to inconsistent parenting, there was no significant effects on the intercept and the slope of social withdrawal.
In conclusion, although Korean parents tend to recognize and promote autonomy for their child as an important task as they enter the early adolescence, the results of this study suggested that it is important to reduce intrusive parenting and to monitor their child’s behavior with ensuring independence of child from the earliest times.

Authors

• Yoon Kyung Kim, Yonsei University
  Presenting Author

• Ju Hee Park, Yonsei University
  Non-Presenting Author