The peer relationships and victimization of children with anxiety disorders

Objectives. This thesis includes two studies that investigated the peer relationships and peer victimization of children with anxiety disorders. Study 1 examined whether children with anxiety disorders report poorer social skills, fewer friends, lower friendship quality, and more peer victimization than non-anxious comparison children. Study 2 investigated whether anxiety and social functioning (social skills and friendship quality) interact in their prediction of peer victimization. A structural equation model linking anxiety, social skills, and friendship quality to victimization was tested separately for children with anxiety disorders and normal comparison children to explore whether the processes involved in victimization differ for these groups. Method. Participants in the anxiety group were 34 boys and 21 girls with a diagnosed anxiety disorder. Children in the 'normal' comparison group were 37 boys and 48 girls recruited from a Catholic school. Children and their parents completed questionnaires measuring social functioning and peer victimization. Results. Study 1 found that children with anxiety disorders reported weaker social skills, lower friendship quality, more frequent rates of being bullied, and more relational peer victimization than comparison children. Anxious children were two to three times more likely than comparisons to be bullied at least twice a week. Parents also rated children with anxiety disorders to have poorer social skills and fewer friends than children in the comparison group. Study 2 found, for both anxious and non-anxious children, that there are two independent pathways to victimization: (a) anxiety independently predicted being victimized; and (b) poor social skills predicted lower friendship quality, which in turn, placed a child at risk for victimization. Conclusions. Social difficulties and peer victimization may contribute to both the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. In addition, anxiety and social difficulties place children at risk for peer victimization. Thus, children with anxiety disorders may benefit from social skills training and/or school-wide anti-bullying interventions.