Prosocial Behavior and Friendship Quality as Moderators of the Association Between Anxious Withdrawal and Peer Experiences in Portuguese Young Adolescents

Abstract

Anxious withdrawal has been associated consistently with adverse peer experiences. However, research has also shown that there is significant heterogeneity among anxiously withdrawn youth. Further, extant research has focused primarily on negative peer experiences and outcomes; little is known about the more successful social experiences of anxiously withdrawn youth. We explored the possibility that the association between anxious withdrawal and group-level peer outcomes (exclusion, victimization, and popularity) might be moderated by peer-valued behaviors (prosocial behavior), friendship relational attributes, and sex, even after accounting for the effects of being involved in a reciprocal best friendship. Peer nominations of psychosocial functioning, and self-reports of best friendships and friendship quality were collected in a community sample of 684 Portuguese young adolescents. Regression analyses revealed that more anxious withdrawn adolescents showed worst group-level peer outcomes, but that: (a) prosocial behavior buffered the positive association between anxious-withdrawal and peer exclusion, particularly for boys; (b) higher friendship quality was associated with lower risk of peer victimization for more anxious-withdrawn girls, but with a higher risk for more anxious withdrawn boys; and (c) higher friendship conflict buffered the positive association between anxious withdrawal and peer exclusion for boys. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of peer-valued characteristics on the peer group experiences of anxiously withdrawn young adolescents.

Prospective associations between peer functioning and social anxiety in adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Further research is needed to study these complex interactions by considering some of the recent research findings (e.g. Freitas et al., 2019 ; Schacter et al., 2019 ).…”

Perceções dos psicólogos portugueses acerca da aceitabilidade de uma intervenção dirigida a crianças inibidas em idade pré-escolar

“…Associations between AW and sociometric measures of negative peer outcomes have been also observed among Portuguese adolescents (Correia, Santos, Freitas, Ribeiro, & Rubin, 2014). However, prosocial behaviors have appeared to play an especially relevant protective role against the negative peer outcomes that have been typically associated with AW (Freitas, Santos, Ribeiro, Daniel, & Rubin, 2019), reflecting possibly the salience of values related to solidarity, equality and support to others in Portugal (European Commission, 2012). Thus, the coexistence of collectivist and individualistic values in Portugal may impact, in a specific way, on peer attitudes and responses toward BI/AW.…”

The socially poor get richer, the rich get poorer: The effect of online self-disclosure on social connectedness and well-being is conditional on social anxiety and audience size

“…To avoid humiliation and embarrassment, socially anxious individuals strategically adopt a self-protective communication style typified by a paucity of self-disclosure (Batool & Zubair, 2018), even when with close friends (Li et al, 2020). Potentially, as a result of diminished self-disclosure, those with high social anxiety generally report lower levels of friendship quality (Freitas et al, 2019) and well-being .…”