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Neuroticism and Conscientiousness as Moderators of the Relation Between Social Withdrawal and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence

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Abstract

Social withdrawal, or refraining from social interaction in the presence of peers, places adolescents at risk of developing emotional problems like anxiety and depression. The personality traits of neuroticism and conscientiousness also relate to emotional difficulties. For example, high conscientiousness predicts lower incidence of anxiety disorders and depression, while high neuroticism relates to greater likelihood of these problems. Based on these associations, socially withdrawn adolescents high in conscientiousness or low in neuroticism were expected to have lower levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Participants included 103 adolescents (59 % female) who reported on their personality traits in 8th grade and their anxiety and depressive symptoms in 9th grade. Peer ratings of social withdrawal were collected within schools in 8th grade. A structural equation model revealed that 8th grade withdrawal positively predicted 9th grade anxiety and depressive symptoms controlling for 8th grade anxiety and depressive symptoms, but neuroticism did not. Conscientiousness moderated the relation of withdrawal with depressive symptoms but not anxiety, such that high levels of conscientiousness attenuated the association between withdrawal and depressive symptoms. This buffering effect may stem from the conceptual relation between conscientiousness and self-regulation. Conscientiousness did not, however, moderate the association between withdrawal and anxiety, which may be partly due to the role anxiety plays in driving withdrawal. Thus, a conscientious, well-regulated personality partially protects withdrawn adolescents from the increased risk of emotional difficulties.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the children, parents, and teachers who participated in the study as well as Allison Buskirk-Cohen, Kathleen Dwyer, Erin Galloway, Jon Goldner, Sue Hartman, Amy Kennedy, Angel Kim, Sarrit Kovacs, Alison Levitch, Melissa Menzer, Wonjung Oh, Joshua Rubin, and Erin Shockey who assisted in data collection and input.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (MH58116) to Kenneth H. Rubin; and by the NICHD Training Program in Social Development (NIH T32 HD007542) awarded to the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology at the University of Maryland, which supported Matthew G. Barstead.

Author’s Contributions

KS conceived of the study, participated in its design, conceptualization, and the statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript; MB participated in the design of the study, performed the statistical analysis, and helped to draft the manuscript; KR participated in the study design, conceptualization, and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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  1. Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, 3304 Benjamin Building, 3942 Campus Drive, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Kelly A. Smith, Matthew G. Barstead & Kenneth H. Rubin

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  1. Kelly A. Smith
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Correspondence to Kelly A. Smith.

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This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Maryland, College Park. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from the parents of all participating adolescents, and assent was obtained from all participants.

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Smith, K.A., Barstead, M.G. & Rubin, K.H. Neuroticism and Conscientiousness as Moderators of the Relation Between Social Withdrawal and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence. J Youth Adolescence 46, 772–786 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0594-z

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