Social withdrawal and depressive symptoms are prevalent and interrelated internalizing problems among adolescents, yet their temporal associations remain inconclusive due to methodological limitations. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether motivationally distinct subtypes of withdrawal (shyness, unsociability, and social avoidance) demonstrate uniform or divergent dynamic relations with depressive symptoms. To address these gaps, this study employed a random intercept cross-lagged panel model to separate between-person and within-person processes between social withdrawal subtypes and depressive symptoms. Participants were 535 Chinese adolescents (53.6% boys, M age = 12.49 years at Time 1) assessed three times over one year. Results revealed that depressive symptoms predicted subsequent increases in shyness (albeit less robustly), unsociability, and social avoidance at the within-person level, whereas none of the withdrawal subtypes predicted changes in depressive symptoms. This pattern supports a uniform, symptom-driven model across all motivations for social withdrawal. These findings challenge the predominant view of withdrawal as a precursor to depressive symptoms and instead highlight depressive symptoms as a key risk factor for social withdrawal in early adolescence, regardless of the underlying motivations.
Yang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.