The goal of this project is to examine the social skills, self-perceptions, and social relationships of 11-year-old children who, at earlier ages, had been identified as extremely wary and socially inhibited. In our longitudinal program of research we have found that the pattern of brain electrical activity (EEG), recorded over the anterior frontal lobes, represents a marker of individual differences in the tendency to express and modulate positive and negative emotions. Thus, infants and toddlers who exhibit wariness and behavioral inhibition during the first two years of life, and who display greater negative right frontal EEG activation are more likely to be socially reticent during preschool peer interaction. Furthermore, 4 year social reticence predicts social withdrawal in the peer group at age 7 years. We posit that socially withdrawn 7-year-old children, especially those who display greater relative right frontal asymmetry, will be rejected by peers in later childhood. Moreover, we hypothesize that the friendships of these children, at age 11 years, will be qualitatively inferior and more fragile than those of their non-withdrawn counterparts. And finally, we postulate that physiologically assessed wariness, in combination with impoverished social skills and peer relationships, will predict negative self perceptions of social competence and peer relationships, as well as internalizing problems in early adolescence (11 years). These hypotheses will be examined by bringing the participants in our longitudinal project to the laboratory for three visits at 11 years of age. Session 1 will consist of same-sex quartets, much like the ones in which the children participated at ages 4 and 7 years. Session 2 will consist of a friendship dyad interaction in which the target child will be observed interacting with his/her best friend. Also in Session 2, both the focal child and his/her best friend will participate in a same-sex quartet with two additional unfamiliar children. Session 3 will allow collection of psychophysiological data. As a result of these three sessions, we will be able to describe the friendship and social interactive patterns of both reticent and non-reticent children. We will also be able to characterize the processes through which competent peer interaction develops. %%% The goal of this project is to examine the social skills, social relationships, and self-perceptions of 11-year-old children who, at earlier ages, had been identified as extremely wary and socially inhibited. Earlier research has suggested that adolescent and adult depression, anxiety, and other problems of an `internalizing` nature may be predicted from negative self appraisals and withdrawal from the peer group during childhood. The developmental precursors of negative self appraisals and social withdrawal, however, are by-and-large unknown. In our longitudinal program of research we have found that infants and toddlers who display greater negative right frontal EEG activation tend to be wary and behaviorally inhibited during the first two years of life. This constellation of psychophysiology and behavior predicts extremely wary, socially reticent behavior during preschool peer interaction. And, 4 year social reticence, combined with negative right frontal EEG activation, predicts social withdrawal from the peer group at age 7 years. In the present study, we are predicting that socially withdrawn 7-year-old children, especially those who display greater relative right frontal asymmetry, will, at 11 years, be rejected when they attempt to initiate interactions with their peers. We hypothesize also that the friendships of these children, at age 11 years, will be qualitatively inferior and more fragile than those of their non-withdrawn counterparts. And finally, we posit that physiologically assessed wariness, in combination with impoverished social skills and peer relationships, will predict negative self perceptions of social competence and peer relationships, as well as internalizing problems in early adolescence (11 years). These hypotheses will be examined by bringing the participants in our longitudinal project to the laboratory for three visits at 11 years of age. In these sessions, we will assess the quality of the children's peer relationships, with a special emphasis on the quality and strength/fragility of their relationships with their best friends. We will also assess the children's self-expressed perceptions of their social skills and social relationships, as well as their feelings of anxiety, social wariness, and depression. Finally, we will continue to collect EEG data, given the purported significance of right frontal asymmetries in the prediction of internalizing disorders in childhood and adolescence. As a result of this study, we will be able to document some of the early origins, and some of the early adolescent concomitants of negative thoughts and feelings about the self, social wariness, and other problems of an internalizing nature.
