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Individual differences in anxiety trajectories from Grades 2 to 8: Impact of the middle school transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2017

Stefanie A. Nelemans*
Affiliation:
Utrecht University
William W. Hale III
Affiliation:
Utrecht University
Susan J. T. Branje
Affiliation:
Utrecht University
Wim H. J. Meeus
Affiliation:
Utrecht University Tilburg University
Karen D. Rudolph
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Stefanie A. Nelemans, Research Centre Adolescent Development, Utrecht University, PO box 80.140, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands; E-mail: s.a.nelemans@uu.nl.

Abstract

This study examined the impact of the middle school transition on general anxiety trajectories from middle childhood to middle adolescence, as well as how youths’ individual vulnerability and exposure to contextual stressors were associated with anxiety trajectories. Participants were 631 youth (47% boys, M age = 7.96 years at Time 1), followed for 7 successive years from second to eighth grade. Teachers reported on youths’ individual vulnerability to anxiety (anxious solitude) in second grade; youth reported on their anxiety in second to eighth grade and aspects of their social contexts particularly relevant to the school transition (school hassles, peer victimization, parent–child relationship quality, and friendship quality) in sixth to eighth grade. The results revealed two subgroups that showed either strongly increasing (5%) or decreasing (14%) levels of anxiety across the transition and two subgroups with fairly stable levels of either high (11%) or low (70%) anxiety over time. Youth in the latter two subgroups could be distinguished based on their individual vulnerability to anxiety, whereas youth with increasing anxiety reported more contextual stressors and less contextual support than youth with decreasing anxiety. In sum, findings suggest that the middle school transition has the potential to alter developmental trajectories of anxiety for some youth, for better or for worse.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

This research was funded by a University of Illinois Arnold O. Beckman Award and National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH68444 (to K.D.R.). We thank the families and schools who participated in this study. We are grateful to Jamie Abaied, Monica Agoston, Hannah Banagale, Megan Flynn, Ellie Hessel, Nicole Llewellyn, Michelle Miernicki, Jo Pauly, Jennifer Monti, and Niwako Sugimura for their assistance in data collection and management.

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