Peer relationships and academic achievement as interacting predictors of depressive symptoms during middle childhood.

Full Abstract

This article reports a longitudinal investigation that examines academic and social difficulties as predictors of depressive symptoms during middle childhood. Participants were 199 elementary school children (M=9.1 years) who were followed for 2 consecutive school years. In both years of the project, children completed a questionnaire assessing depressive symptoms and a peer nomination inventory assessing friendships and social standing. Grade point averages (GPAs) were obtained from a review of school records. Low GPAs were predictive of depressive symptoms, but this effect did not hold for children who had numerous friends. Similarly, children who had relatively few friends tended to experience depressive symptoms. However, the effect was attenuated for children with high GPAs. Taken together, the findings suggest that competencies in 1 domain can moderate the risks associated with difficulties in the other domain.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Schwartz, David (D); Gorman, Andrea Hopmeyer (AH); Duong, Mylien T (MT); Nakamoto, Jonathan (J);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of abnormal psychology (J Abnorm Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-May; vol 117 (issue 2) : pp 289-99

Dates: Created 2008/05/20; Completed 2008/07/08;

PMID: 18489205, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Achievement
Aptitude
Child
Depression - diagnosis; psychology
Female
Friends
Humans

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.