An examination of the relationship between childhood depression and social competence amongst primary school children

Forty-three primary school children who scored in the clinical range of the Children's Depression Inventory were compared with 43 children who were categorized as fearful but not depressed and a control group of 43 children who were classed as nondepressed-nonfearful. Subjects were matched across groups on the basis of grade and sex. The analyses were performed twice, initially with a depressed sample that excluded any depressed-fearful children and again with a depressed group that included such children. The results revealed that, independent of whether the depressed category included children who were also fearful, the depressed group reported lower levels of assertiveness and greater submissiveness, less adequate social skills performance, received lower ratings of peer popularity, fewer positive nominations from peer sociometry and more negative nominations. Depressed children were much more likely to be rejected or isolated by their peers than were their fearful or control counterparts.