Socioemotional characteristics of withdrawn and aggressive children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the psychological characteristics of with drawn, aggressive, and average/normal fifth-grade children (M age = 10.6 years). From an initial sample of 224 children, an extreme-groups targeting procedure based on peer assessments identified 31 withdrawn, 29 aggressive, and 118 average chil dren. Both the withdrawn and aggressive children were found to be less popular among peers than were the average group; however, the aggressive group was the most actively disliked. Teachers rated aggressive children as the most hostile (espe cially aggressive boys) and as having more learning problems and less tolerance for frustration than the average group. The withdrawn group was rated by teachers as more shy-anxious and less competently assertive and by peers as less likely to play sociable-leadership roles than were the comparison groups. Withdrawn children also judged themselves as less physically competent than average and aggressive chil dren. Finally, withdrawn boys, but not girls, reported themselves as being more lonely and less socially skilled than their average and aggressive counterparts.