Are depressive symptoms in middle childhood associated with more or less realistic social self-perceptions? At the beginning and end of the school year, children in grades 3 through 5 (n=667) rated how much they liked their classmates, predicted the acceptance ratings they would receive from each of their classmates, and completed self-report measures of perceived acceptance and depressive symptoms. Accuracy of perceived acceptance was indexed by the mean difference between pairs of predicted and received ratings (absolute values). Standardized residual scores created by regressing self-reported perceived acceptance (either predicted ratings or children's responses to a questionnaire measure of perceived peer acceptance) onto peer acceptance ratings formed two measures of bias. Bi-directional associations were found for accuracy of perceived acceptance and depressive symptoms; inaccurate perceptions predicted increases in depressive symptoms and depressive symptoms predicted decreased accuracy. Neither measure of bias predicted changes in depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms predicted increases in negatively biased perceptions as assessed via questionnaire.
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Notes
The same pattern of results was found when analyses were conducted with perceived acceptance (i.e., Social Acceptance scores) instead of Bias/SA (results available on request). Perceived acceptance did not predict changes in depressive symptoms but depressive symptoms predicted more negative perceptions of acceptance.
The same pattern of results was found when analyses were conducted with Predicted Ratings instead of Bias/PR (results available on request). Predicted ratings did not predict changes in depressive symptoms and depressive symptoms did not predict changes in predicted ratings.
Additional data analysis conducted to determine if Time 2 peer-rated acceptance mediated the prospective link between accuracy and changes in depressive symptoms failed to support this hypothesis (results available upon request). Accuracy did not predict changes in peer acceptance across the school year, one of the conditions for testing a mediation model (Baron & Kenny, 1986), nor was the contribution of accuracy to changes in depressive symptoms diminished when Time 2 peer acceptance was included in the regression analysis.
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Kistner, J.A., David-Ferdon, C.F., Repper, K.K. et al. Bias and Accuracy of Children's Perceptions of Peer Acceptance: Prospective Associations with Depressive Symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol 34, 336–348 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-006-9028-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-006-9028-9