| The purpose of the present research was to examine the social cognitions of peer-identified withdrawn children. In particular, it was hypothesized that withdrawn children would demonstrate distinct patterns of social-cognitive processing that would differentiate them from peer-identified aggressive and comparison children. Participants included 457 children from grade four, five, and six (54% females and 46% males). These children completed a selection of self- and peer-report measures including: (1) a peer-rated behavioural nomination measure; (2) a measure of hostile intent biases and social responses to ambiguous situations; (3) a measure of social goals and self-efficacy; and (4) a newly developed measure of causal attributions. An extreme groups procedure was used to identify three groups of children: (1) passive-solitary (n = 50); (2) aggressive-disruptive (n = 53); and a non-aggressive non-withdrawn comparison group (n = 206). Among the significant findings, it was discovered that peer-identified withdrawn children did not differ from comparison children with respect to intent attributions, goals and self-efficacy evaluations. However, withdrawn children displayed a pattern of self-defeating attributions for social situations and indicated a preference for non-assertive, withdrawn strategies to deal with hypothetical conflict situations. Findings are discussed with respect to implications for intervention, and directions for further research are presented. |
