Social Withdrawal during Middle Childhood in Turkey: The Role of Individual, Parenting, and Peer Factors

This dissertation project aimed to examine the meaning of social withdrawal in an inter-dependent cultural context (Turkey), its correlates, and the risk and protective factors for withdrawn children's adjustment across two consecutive studies. In Study 1, semi-structured interviews with Turkish children (n = 15), mothers (n = 13), and teachers (n = 13) were conducted to identify the behavioral and motivational descriptors of social withdrawal. Similar to Western conceptualizations of social withdrawal, the results confirmed the presence of shyness and unsociability. A new subtype, regulated withdrawal, was also revealed, which refers to such behaviors as adopting a passive role in social groups, overly regulating behaviors, and suppressing wishes and desires in social relationships, with the motivation of fitting into the group and maintaining harmonious relations with others. Study 2A examined the factor structure, measurement invariance across informants (children and mothers), reliability, and validity of the Child Social Preference Scale (CSPS), which was revised based on the findings from Study 1. Participants included 599 children aged 9-11 years and their mothers (n = 571), and teachers of a subset of the sample (n = 20). The results suggested that the CSPS-R had the same factor structure across the child- and mother-rated forms. However, the child-rated CSPS-R appeared to be a more valid measure of social withdrawal than the mother-rated form. Using the same sample as Study 2A, Study 2B examined the correlates and moderators of withdrawn behaviors on child adjustment. Shyness was found to be related with a wider range of child adjustment difficulties than unsociability and regulated withdrawal, although all forms of withdrawal were associated with child adjustment difficulties. Analyses of the risk and protective factors suggested that the moderating roles of individual, parenting, and peer level factors varied by the different forms of withdrawn behaviors. Overall, this dissertation research contributed to the development of a culturally based understanding of socially withdrawn behaviors in an interdependent cultural context. Universal and cultural-specific processes are discussed with regard to their theoretical and practical implications for socially withdrawn children's adjustment