Relative to other motivations of social withdrawal (i.e., shyness, unsociability), social avoidance is understudied. Furthermore, the relation between social avoidance and externalizing problems seldom has been investigated despite reasons to expect an association. We examined the association between social avoidance and externalizing problems using a sample of early adolescents in the United States using parents’ reports (N = 294; 54.1% boys; M age = 12.43 years). Supporting our hypotheses, structural equation models indicated that social avoidance positively predicted concurrent externalizing problems, controlling for shyness, unsociability, and internalizing problems (including depression and anxiety). Findings highlight that socially avoidant adolescents’ behaviors may include avoiding others as well as acting out. Longitudinal work is needed to examine the potential bidirectional relations between social avoidance and externalizing problems.

中文翻译：

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退缩和行动？：早期青少年的社交回避和外化问题

相对于社会退缩的其他动机（即害羞、不合群），社会回避的研究不足。此外，尽管有理由期望有关联，但很少研究社交回避和外化问题之间的关系。我们使用父母报告（N  = 294；54.1% 男孩；M年龄 = 12.43 岁）。支持我们的假设，结构方程模型表明，社会回避积极预测并发的外化问题，控制害羞、不社交和内化问题（包括抑郁和焦虑）。研究结果强调，社交回避青少年的行为可能包括回避他人以及表现出来。需要进行纵向工作来检查社会回避和外化问题之间潜在的双向关系。