Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-18T14:51:32.602Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The snowball effect: Friendship moderates escalations in depressed affect among avoidant and excluded children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2010

William M. Bukowski*
Affiliation:
Concordia University
Brett Laursen
Affiliation:
Florida Atlantic University
Betsy Hoza
Affiliation:
University of Vermont
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: William M. Bukowski, Concordia University, Department of Psychology and Centre de Recherche en Développement Humain, 7141 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montreal, Quebec H4B 1R6, Canada; E-mail: william.bukowski@concordia.ca.

Abstract

A three-wave longitudinal study conducted with preadolescent boys and girls (N = 231 at Time 1 [T1]) was used to assess the hypotheses that aspects of social withdrawal would be predictors of a “snowball” cascade of depressed affect, and that friendship experiences would moderate these effects. Consistent with these hypotheses, multilevel modeling showed that measures of avoidance and exclusion at T1 were associated with concurrent levels of depressed affect and were antecedent to escalating trajectories of depressed affect over time. These accelerating growth curves fit a snowball cascade model. The analyses also showed the protective effects of friendship. Specifically, the snowball effect was limited to avoidant and excluded children who were friendless. Depressed affect did not increase among avoidant and excluded children who were friended.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletion, 117, 497529.Google Scholar
Bowker, A., Bukowski, W., Zargarpour, S., & Hoza, B. (1998). A structural and functional analysis of a two-dimensional model of social isolation. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 44, 447463.Google Scholar
Bryk, A. S., & Raudenbush, S. W. (1992). Hierarchical linear models. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Bukowski, W. M., Brendgen, M., & Vitaro, F. (2007). Peers and socialization: Effects on externalizing and internalizing problems. In Grusec, J. E. & Hastings, P. D. (Eds.), Handbook of socialization: Theory and research (pp. 355381). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Bukowski, W. M., Motzoi, C., & Meyer, F. (2008). Friendship as process, function, and outcome. In Rubin, K., Bukowski, W. M., & Laursen, B. (Eds.), Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Bukowski, W. M., & Sippola, L. K. (2005). Friendship and development: Putting the most human relationship in its place. In Jensen, R. Larson & L. (Eds.), New directions for child and adolescent development (pp. 9198). San Francisco, CA: Jossey–Bass.Google Scholar
Capaldi, D. M. (1992). Co-occurrence of conduct problems and depressive symptoms in early adolescent boys: II. A 2-year follow-up at Grade 8. Development and Psychopathology, 4, 125144.Google Scholar
Coplan, R., & Rubin, K. (1998). Exploring and assessing nonsocial play in the preschool: The development and validation of the preschool play behavior scale. Social Development, 7, 7291.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A., Greenberg, M. T., Malone, P. S., & The Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2008). Testing an idealized dynamic cascade model of the development of serious violence in adolescence. Child Development, 79, 19071927.Google Scholar
Furman, W., & Robbins, P. (1985). What's the point: Selection of treatment objectives. In Schneider, B., Rubin, K. H., & Ledingham, J. E. (Eds.), Children's peer relations: Issues in assessment and intervention (pp. 4154). New York: Springer–Verlag.Google Scholar
Gazelle, H., & Ladd, G. W. (2003). A nxious solitude and peer exclusion: A diathesis-stress model of internalizing trajectories in childhood. Child Development, 74, 257278.Google Scholar
Hodges, E., Boivin, M., Vitaro, F., & Bukowski, W. M. (1999). The power of friendship: Friendship as a factor in the cycle of victimization and maladjustment. Developmental Psychology, 35, 94101.Google Scholar
Hoza, B., Molina, B., Bukowski, W. M., & Sippola, L. K. (1995). Aggression, withdrawal and measures of popularity and friendship as predictors of internalizing and externalizing problems during early adolescence. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 787802.Google Scholar
Kochenderfer-Ladd, B., & Wardrop, J. L. (2001). Chronicity and instability of children's peer victimization experiences as predictors of loneliness and social satisfaction trajectories. Child Development, 72, 134151.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, L., LaCrosse, J., & Ricks, D. (1972). The predictability of adult mental health from childhood. In Wolman, B. (Ed.), Manual of child psychopathology. New York: McGraw–Hill.Google Scholar
Laursen, B., Bukowski, W. M., Nurmi, E., & Aunola, K. (2007). Friendship moderates prospective associations between social isolation and adjustment problems in young children. Child Development, 78, 13951404.Google Scholar
Laursen, B., Hafen, C. A., Rubin, K. H., Booth-LaForce, C., & Rose Krasnor, L. (2010). The distinctive difficulties of disagreeable youth. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 56, 80103.Google Scholar
Masten, A. S. (2003). Commentary: Development psychopathology as a unifying context for mental health and education. School Psychology Review, 32, 169.Google Scholar
Masten, A. S., Morison, P., & Pellegrini, D. S. (1985). A revised class play method of peer assessment. Developmental Psychology, 21, 523533.Google Scholar
Masten, A. S., Roisman, G. I., Long, J. D., Burt, K. B., Obradovic, J., Riley, J., et al. (2005). Developmental Psychology, 41, 733746.Google Scholar
Oh, W., Rubin, K. H., Bowker, J. C., Booth-LaForce, K., Rose-Krasnor, L., & Laursen, B. (2010). Trajectories of social withdrawal from middle childhood to early adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 36, 553565.Google Scholar
Parker, J. G., & Asher, S. R. (1987). Peer relations and later personal adjustment: Are low-accepted children at risk? Psychological Bulletin, 102, 357389.Google Scholar
Parker, J. G., Rubin, K. H., Erath, S., Wojslawowicz, J. C., & Buskirk, A. (2006). Peer relationships, child development, and adjustment: A developmental psychopathology perspective. In Cicchetti, D. (Ed.), Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 2. Risk, disorder, and adaptation (pp. 419493). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Rubin, K., Coplan, R., & Bowker, J. (2009). Social withdrawal and shyness in childhood and adolescence. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 141171.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H. (1993). The Waterloo Longitudinal Project: Correlates and consequences of social withdrawal from childhood to adolescence. In Rubin, K. H. & Asendorf, J. B. (Eds.), Social withdrawal, inhibition, shyness in childhood (pp. 291314). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., & Asendorpf, J. (1993). Social withdrawal, inhibition and shyness in childhood: Conceptual and definitional issues. In Rubin, K. & Asendorpf, J. (Eds.), Social withdrawal, inhibition, and shyness in childhood. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., Bukowski, W. M., & Parker, J. G. (2006). Peer interactions, relationships and groups. In Damon, W. (Series Ed.) & Eisenberg, N. (Vol. Ed.), The handbook of child psychology (6th ed., pp. 571645). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., Hymel, S., & Mills, R. (1989). Sociability and social withdrawal in childhood: Stability and outcomes. Journal of Personality, 57, 237255.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., & Mills, R. (1988). The many faces of social isolation in childhood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 916924.Google Scholar
Sameroff, A. J. (1983). Development systems: Contexts and evolution. In Kessen, W. (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. History, theory, and methods (pp. 237294). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Schneider, B. H., Richard, J. F., Younger, A. J., & Freeman, P. (2000). A longitudinal exploration of the continuity of children's social participation and social withdrawal across socioeconomic status levels and social settings. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 497519.Google Scholar
Schneider, B. H., Younger, A. J., Smith, T., & Freeman, P. (1998). A longitudinal exploration of the cross-context stability of social withdrawal in early adolescence. Journal of Early Adolescence, 18, 374396.Google Scholar
Sullivan, H. S. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Thelen, E. (1989). Self-organization in developmental processes: Can systems approaches work? In Gunnar, M. R. & Thelen, E. (Eds.), The Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology: Vol. 22. Systems and development (pp. 77117). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Vitaro, F., Boivin, M., & Bukowski, W. M. (2007). The role of friendship in child and adolescent psychosocial development. In Rubin, K., Bukowski, W. M., & Laursen, B. (Eds.), Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Younger, A., & Daniels, T. (1992). Children's reasons for nominating their peers as withdrawn: Withdrawal vs. active isolation. Developmental Psychology, 28, 955960.Google Scholar