Is there an Upside to Social Withdrawal? Considering Well-Being among Socially Withdrawn Emerging Adults

Closson, Leanna M.; McVarnock, Alicia; Cook, Laura

doi:10.1007/s11482-022-10056-w

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Thus, unsociability is expected to elicit negative perceptions like other subtypes of social withdrawal, yet the present results did not support this proposition. Instead, the results aligned with findings from primarily Western societies and a few recent studies in China that unsociability may not pose similar risks as shyness or social avoidance into late adolescence and emerging adulthood (Closson et al, 2022;Coplan et al, 2019;Ding et al, 2023;Hu et al, 2022;Nelson, 2013).…”

Section: Adolescents' Perceptions Of Socially Withdrawn Peerssupporting

confidence: 82%

Chinese adolescents’ attitudes and beliefs about shy, unsociable, and socially avoidant peers

Zhang

Zhao

2023

Social Development

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Peers play an important role in socially withdrawn adolescents’ adjustment. Using a dyadic peer‐rating approach, this study examined adolescents’ attitudes and beliefs about real‐world, rather than hypothetical, subtypes of socially withdrawn peers. Data were drawn from 274 adolescents (Mage = 13.23 years, SD = .68; 52% boys) from rural China. Adolescents rated each classmate's withdrawal motivation (shyness, unsociability, and social avoidance) and attitudes and beliefs about each classmate, including affiliative preference, social acceptance, prosocial orientation, teacher liking, negative impact, and learning problems. Results indicated that adolescents had pervasive negative perceptions of socially avoidant peers on all the outcomes except for teacher liking, and occasionally negative perceptions of shy peers, including low social acceptance and more learning problems. In contrast, adolescents did not perceive unsociable peers differently compared to non‐withdrawn peers. Gender differences were found only for social avoidance with avoidant girls occasionally eliciting more negative perceptions than avoidant boys. These findings uncovered the complexity of young adolescents’ perceptions of socially withdrawn peers in rural China and highlight the need for more efforts to support the healthy development of socially avoidant adolescents.

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Section: Adolescents' Perceptions Of Socially Withdrawn Peerssupporting

confidence: 82%

Chinese adolescents’ attitudes and beliefs about shy, unsociable, and socially avoidant peers

Zhang

Zhao

2023

Social Development

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“…Investigating emerging adults' motivations for solitude is crucial to understanding the processes underlying social withdrawal and its potential associations with socio-emotional functioning [8,15]. Some previous research has examined how different social withdrawal motivations are associated with indices of internalizing problems and well-being among emerging adults [32,35,42]. However, few studies have taken a person-oriented approach (e.g., [13]).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among emerging adults, shyness has demonstrated associations with depressive symptoms, existential concerns, test anxiety, and lower levels of academic self-efficacy [16,34]. Indeed, Closson et al [35] found that shy young adults reported the lowest levels of social support, happiness, life satisfaction, and self-worth compared to other groups of withdrawn and non-withdrawn peers.…”

Section: Implications Of Motivations For Social Withdrawal In Emergin...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was hypothesized that these social withdrawal subgroups would differ regarding maladaptive developmental outcomes, both contemporaneously and three months later. Specifically, we expected groups characterized by shyness, social avoidance, and negative affect to report higher depression, social anxiety, and feelings of loneliness, as well as lower life satisfaction, compared to those who displayed more unsociability [14,32,35,43].…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, it is important to consider gender differences in the meaning and implications of social withdrawal, but to date, the empirical evidence in this regard remains mixed [35,44]. For instance, Closson et al [35] did not report significant gender differences in socially withdrawn emerging adults' well-being (e.g., social support, happiness, life satisfaction), whereas Nelson et al [44] found that socially avoidant females reported lower self-image than males in a sample of established adults (aged 30-35 years). Accordingly, gender effects were tested on a more exploratory basis.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Motivations for Social Withdrawal, Mental Health, and Well-Being in Emerging Adulthood: A Person-Oriented Approach

Sette,

Pecora,

Laghi

et al. 2023

Behavioral Sciences

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Emerging adults seek solitude because of different underlying motivational and emotional processes. The current short-term longitudinal study aimed to: (1) identify subgroups of socially withdrawn emerging adults characterized by different motivations for solitude (shyness, unsociability, social avoidance) and affect (positive, negative); and (2) compare these subgroups in terms of indices of internalizing difficulties and life-satisfaction. Participants were N = 348 university students (Mage = 21.85 years, SD = 3.84) from Italy, who completed online questionnaires at two-time points separated by three months. Results from a latent profile analysis (LPA) suggested three distinct subgroups characterized by different social withdrawal motivations (i.e., shy, unsociable, and socially avoidant), as well as a non-withdrawn subgroup (characterized by low social withdrawal motivations, low negative affect, and high positive affect). Among the results, the socially avoidant subgroup reported the highest levels of social anxiety, whereas the avoidant and shy subgroups reported the highest loneliness and lowest life satisfaction. The unsociable subgroup appeared to be the most well-adjusted subgroup of socially withdrawn emerging adults and reported similar levels of life satisfaction as the non-withdrawn subgroup. Our findings confirmed the heterogeneity of emerging adults’ experiences of solitude, with different motivations for social withdrawal appearing to confer a differential risk for maladjustment.

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Traffic exhaust pollution and residents' happiness: analysis from China general social survey (CGSS) data

Mei,

He,

Luo

2023

Curr Psychol

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Is there an Upside to Social Withdrawal? Considering Well-Being among Socially Withdrawn Emerging Adults

Cited by 6 publications

References 42 publications

Chinese adolescents’ attitudes and beliefs about shy, unsociable, and socially avoidant peers

Chinese adolescents’ attitudes and beliefs about shy, unsociable, and socially avoidant peers

Motivations for Social Withdrawal, Mental Health, and Well-Being in Emerging Adulthood: A Person-Oriented Approach

Traffic exhaust pollution and residents' happiness: analysis from China general social survey (CGSS) data

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