Sad, Scared, or Rejected? A Short-Term Longitudinal Study of the Predictors of Social Avoidance in Chinese Children

Co‐occurrence of and cross‐informant agreement on shyness, unsociability, and social avoidance during early adolescence

“…Avoidance is attributed to an aversion to social interactions perhaps due to severe fear/anxiety or depression. More work is needed, but currently there is more evidence for depression than anxiety (Coplan et al, ; Ding et al, ). Shyness and avoidance may share a proneness to internalizing problems or negative emotionality, and unsociability and avoidance share an affinity for solitude that may contribute to relations between shyness and avoidance and between unsociability and avoidance, respectively (Coplan et al, ; Teppers, Luyckx, Vanhalst, Klimstra, & Goossens, ).…”

“…In the United States, 8‐year olds’ shyness and unsociability positively correlated (medium effect size for self‐report; large effect sizes for peer, parent, and teacher reports; Spangler & Gazelle, ). In early adolescence, shyness and unsociability positively correlated for self‐reports in the United States, India, Finland, and China (medium effect sizes; Barstead et al, ; Bowker & Raja, ; Ding et al, ; Ojanen, Findley‐Van Nostrand, Bowker, & Markovic, ; Sang et al, ; Zhang & Eggum‐Wilkens, ), and for peer nominations in China (medium effect sizes; Liu et al, ; Zhang & Eggum‐Wilkens, ). Finally, U.S. college students’ self‐reported shyness and unsociability positively correlated (medium effect sizes; Bowker et al, ; Nelson, ).…”

What are They Thinking? Examining Complex Links Among Social Withdrawal, Maladaptive Cognitions, and Internalizing Problems in Children and Emerging Adults

“…Thus, whereas one indirect pathway to social anxiety (via threatening cognitions) emerged, three pathways from social avoidance to depressive symptoms were identified -one direct, and two indirect via threatening and negative cognitions. These findings not only help to explain why social avoidance might be associated with a wide range of emotional difficulties (i.e., multiple pathways to maladjustment), but also add to the growing evidence specifically linking social avoidance to depression (Coplan, Ooi, Xiao, et al, 2018;Ding et al, 2018). This is particularly important, as it is becoming increasingly apparent that socially avoidant youth may have different emotional substrates than those of their shy and unsociable counterparts and may require unique assistance (see below for more details about the implications of these findings).…”

“…For example, social avoidance has been found to be associated with internalizing difficulties in early (Coplan, Ooi, Xiao, et al, 2018) and late childhood . Moreover, there is at least some evidence to suggest that shyness and social avoidance may demonstrate somewhat unique patterns of associations with emotional adjustment in childhood Ding et al, 2018). For example, Coplan, Ooi, Xiao, et al (2018) reported that, whereas shyness displayed a direct effect on social anxiety, social avoidance demonstrated a direct effect on depressive symptoms (even after accounting for common associations and mediating effects) in their sample of young children.…”

“…To begin, internalizing problems and/or maladaptive cognitions may promote socially withdrawn behaviour (Cole, Zapp, Fettig, & Pérez-Edgar, 2016;London et al, 2007;Zimmer-Gembeck, Nesdale, Webb, Khatibi, & Downey, 2016). For example, Ding et al (2018) recently reported that depression predicted significant change in social avoidance nine months later (but not vice versa) in their sample of Chinese children, suggesting that social avoidance may also arise from depression.…”