Kids got the blues?

En français.

Friendless kids can become social outcasts who risk spiraling into depression by adolescence, according to new research from Concordia University, Florida Atlantic University and the University of Vermont.

Yet for most shy and withdrawn children friends can be a form of protection against sadness, as the study reports in the journal Development and Psychopathology.

“The long-term effects of being a withdrawn child are enduringly negative,” says lead author William M. Bukowski, a psychology professor and director of the Concordia Centre for Research in Human Development. “Over time, we found that withdrawn kids showed increasing levels of sadness and higher levels of depressive feelings.”

A total of 130 girls and 101 boys in the third through fifth school grades, took part in the three-year study. Participants were asked to rate whether they felt shy or preferred solitude.

The research team also found that peers typically excluded children with poor social skills, who were perceived as overly aggressive or immature.

Concordia psychology professor William M. Bukowski. | Photo by Concordia University.

Compared with friendless children, those who had friends were less likely to report depressed feelings. “Friendship disrupts the negative and long-term effects of withdrawal,” says Bukowski, who is also Concordia University Research Chair in Psychology and a member of the Centre for Research in Human Development.

“Friendship promotes resilience and protects at-risk kids from internalizing problems such as feeling depressed and anxious.”

Withdrawal can have consequences that extend beyond the near term. “In much the same was as a snowball rapidly grows as it rolls down a hill, an adjustment problem is thought to amplify as it worsens,” says Bukowski. “Being isolated and excluded from the peer group can increase levels of depressed feelings in children and those negative feelings can escalate throughout adolescence.”

The key to avoid peer rejection is to make at least one friend. “Having one friend can be protective for withdrawn or shy kids,” says Bukowski. “Our study confirms the value of having friends, which are like a shield against negative social experiences.”

Partners in research:
This study was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the W. T. Grant Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation.

About the study:
The paper, “The snowball effect: Friendship moderates escalations in depressed affect among avoidant and excluded children,” published in the journal Development and Psychopathology, was authored by William M. Bukowski of Concordia University in Canada, Brett Laursen of Florida Atlantic University and Betsy Hoza of the University of Vermont in the United States.

Listen to CJAD host Dan Laxer’s interview with William Bukowski about his latest study: