Anxious Solitude and Peer Exclusion: Evidence for a Diathesis-Stress Model of Internalizing Trajectories in Childhood

Abstract

A diathesis-stress model is proposed in which the joint forces of personal vulnerability (anxious solitude) and interpersonal adversity (peer exclusion) predict depressive symptoms in children over time. Children's (N = 388; 50% female) social behavior, peer relations, and emotional adjustment were assessed by teacher-report and rejection was assessed by peer-report at school entry in kindergarten and every spring thereafter through 4 th grade. Results indicate that anxious solitude and peer exclusion co-occur in children soon after kindergarten entry, and that anxious solitary children who are excluded early on, in comparison to their non-excluded anxious solitary counterparts, display greater stability in their subsequent display of anxious solitude. As hypothesized, the joint influence of anxious solitude and exclusion predicts the most elevated depressive symptom trajectories. Furthermore, results lend empirical support to the distinction between attitudinal peer rejection and overt peer exclusion, and suggest that there may be greater interpersonal consequences of anxious solitude for boys than girls.