Final: How Changes in Friendship Quantity, Quality, and Stability Predict and are Predicted by Social Withdrawal in Late Adolescence

Little is known about how friendship quantity, quality, and stability predict and are predicted by social withdrawal in adolescence, and no study has examined the relations between changes in these friendship characteristics and withdrawal. The current study tested a moderated mediation model. In this model, the continuity of social withdrawal is mediated by baseline levels and changes in the adolescent’s friendship network, transition status moderates the associations between withdrawal and friendship characteristics, and sex moderates all paths. Because number of friends, friendship quality, and friendship stability are interrelated, all three characteristics were modeled simultaneously in order to identify their unique mediating effects. We aimed to answer three questions: (1) do baseline levels and changes in friendship quantity, quality, and stability mediate the continuity (or discontinuity) of withdrawal from 16 to 19 years? (2) do education and house transitions moderate the association from pre-transition withdrawal to changes in friendship network characteristics? (3) Does sex moderate any of the paths in the mediation model?