Maria Perez, Beth Kotchick, Ph.D., Alison Papadakis, Ph.D., Rachel Grover, Ph.D.

The Moderation Effect of Social Anxiety on the Relation between Relational Victimization and Academic Achievement, Class Participation, and School Avoidance

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The current study examined the relations among relational victimization and factors of school engagement (class participation, academic achievement, and school avoidance) and social anxiety and factors of school engagement. Furthermore, the moderation effects of social anxiety on the relation between relational victimization and school engagement factors were examined as well.  The participants were middle school students (6^th-8^th graders; N = 148) from six Catholic schools located in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Participants completed the Social Experience Questionnaire – Self Report (SEQ-S; Crick & Grotpeter, 1996) and the Social Anxiety Scale for Children – Revised Version (SASC-R; La Greca & Stone; 1993). The participants’ homeroom teachers completed the Social Experience Questionnaire – Teacher Report (SEQ-T; Cullerton-Sen & Crick, 2005;), a class participation scale –teacher report that also includes the academic achievement measure, and the school avoidance subscale of the Teacher Rating Scale of School Adjustment (TRSSA; Birch & Ladd; 1997). It was hypothesized that relational victimization would be negatively associated with school engagement and that social anxiety would be negatively associated with school engagement. It was also hypothesized that social anxiety would moderate the relation between relational victimization and school engagement and that gender would moderate the aforementioned moderated relation. Data collection has been completed and analysis is in progress. Preliminary results are available on the poster.