Anxiety Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Anxiety, including details on anxiety disorder, panic attacks, medication, counselling, therapy.

Need for approval and children's well-being.

Rudolph KD, Caldwell MS, Conley CS

Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820, USA. krudolph@uiuc.edu

This research examined the hypothesis that a tendency to base one's self-worth on peer approval is associated with positive and negative aspects of children's well-being. A sample of 153 fourth through eighth graders (9.0 to 14.8 years) reported on need for approval, global self-worth, social-evaluative concerns, anxiety and depression, and exposure to victimization. Teachers reported on social behavior. Results confirmed that need for approval is a two-dimensional construct composed of positive (enhanced self-worth in the face of social approval) and negative (diminished self-worth in the face of social disapproval) approval-based self-appraisals. Need for approval had trade-offs for well-being that depended on the dimension (positive vs. negative), the psychological domain (emotional vs. social adjustment), children's sex and age, and children's social context (high vs. low peer victimization).

Published 23 March 2005 in Child Dev, 76(2): 309-23.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Anxiety Research Today. All Rights Reserved.