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Loneliness as a partial mediator of the relation between low social preference in childhood and anxious/depressed symptoms in adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2009

Reid Griffith Fontaine ,
Chongming Yang ,
Virginia Salzer Burks ,
Kenneth A. Dodge ,
Joseph M. Price ,
Gregory S. Pettit  and
John E. Bates
Reid Griffith Fontaine*
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Chongming Yang
Affiliation:
Duke University
Virginia Salzer Burks
Affiliation:
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
Kenneth A. Dodge
Affiliation:
Duke University
Joseph M. Price
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
Gregory S. Pettit
Affiliation:
Auburn University
John E. Bates
Affiliation:
Indiana University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Reid G. Fontaine, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, 1503 East University Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85721; E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

This study examined the mediating role of loneliness (assessed by self-report at Time 2; Grade 6) in the relation between early social preference (assessed by peer report at Time 1; kindergarten through Grade 3) and adolescent anxious/depressed symptoms (assessed by mother, teacher, and self-reports at Time 3; Grades 7–9). Five hundred eighty-five boys and girls (48% female; 16% African American) from three geographic sites of the Child Development Project were followed from kindergarten through Grade 9. Loneliness partially mediated and uniquely incremented the significant effect of low social preference in childhood on anxious/depressed symptoms in adolescence, controlling for early anxious/depressed symptoms at Time 1. Findings are critical to understanding the psychological functioning through which early social experiences affect youths' maladjusted development. Directions for basic and intervention research are discussed, and implications for treatment are addressed.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , May 2009 , pp. 479 - 491
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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