Reciprocal Associations Between Social Withdrawal Motivations and Peer Difficulties During Early Adolescence

Introduction: This multi-informant longitudinal study examines the bidirectional associations among social withdrawal motivations (shyness, unsociability, avoidance) and peer difficulties (exclusion, victimization, rejection, perceived isolation). The present research also considers whether associations among withdrawal motivations and peer difficulties vary by adolescents' gender. Methods: A large urban sample of Indian young adolescents participated at two timepoints (T1, T2) in 2014 (N = 444; 56% male, M_age = 13.77 years). Peer difficulties were assessed via peer nominations of victimization, rejection, and exclusion and adolescents' self-reports of perceived social isolation. Results: Contrary to expectations, no reciprocal associations among peer difficulties and social withdrawal motivations were observed in this study. Results did, however, show that T1 shy motivations were associated positively with T2 victimization, and T1 avoidant motivations were related positively with T2 exclusion. In addition, for girls, T1 shy motivations were related positively to T2 social isolation. Also for girls, T1 isolation was related negatively to avoidant and unsociable motivations at T2. Findings also showed that peer victimization was a positive predictor, but peer rejection was a negative predictor, of later unsociable motivations for boys and girls. Conclusions: Taken together, these results highlight the importance of considering different types of peer difficulties in studies of social withdrawal motivations during early adolescence, have potential applied implications, and set the stage for future research.