Child Internalizing Problems in Ukraine: The Role of Prosocial and Antisocial Friends and Generalized Self-Efficacy

Viktor Burlaka, Oleksii Serdiuk (), Jun Sung Hong, Lisa A. O’Donnell, Serhii Maksymenko, Vitalii Panok, Heorhii Danylenko, Igor Linskiy, Valerii Sokurenko, Iuliia Churakova and Nadiya Ilchyshyn
Additional contact information
Viktor Burlaka: School of Social Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
Oleksii Serdiuk: Research Lab for Psychological Support of Law Enforcement, Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, 61080 Kharkiv, Ukraine
Jun Sung Hong: School of Social Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
Lisa A. O’Donnell: School of Social Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
Serhii Maksymenko: G.S. Kostyuk Institute of Psychology, National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, 01033 Kyiv, Ukraine
Vitalii Panok: Ukrainian Scientific and Methodical Center of Applied Psychology and Social Work, National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, 03045 Kyiv, Ukraine
Heorhii Danylenko: Institute for Children and Adolescents Health Care, National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, 61153 Kharkiv, Ukraine
Igor Linskiy: Institute of Neurology, Psychiatry and Narcology, National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, 61068 Kharkiv, Ukraine
Valerii Sokurenko: Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, 61080 Kharkiv, Ukraine
Iuliia Churakova: Bloomberg School of Public Health, John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Nadiya Ilchyshyn: Research Lab for Psychological Support of Law Enforcement, Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, 61080 Kharkiv, Ukraine

Societies, 2022, vol. 12, issue 5, 1-10

Abstract: The current study examines the association between peer behaviors, self-efficacy, and internalizing symptoms in a sample of 1545 children aged 11 to 13 years old who attended middle schools in eastern Ukraine. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the role of self-efficacy in the relationship between child internalizing behaviors (anxiety, depression, and somatic complaints) and exposure to prosocial and antisocial friends among girls and boys. Higher self-efficacy was linked with fewer internalizing symptoms for girls and boys. For both boys and girls, exposure to prosocial friends was not statistically associated with changes in internalizing behaviors. However, girls and boys who reported having more antisocial friends had significantly more internalizing symptoms. For girls, association with a greater number of prosocial friends and fewer antisocial friends has been linked with higher self-efficacy and fewer internalizing symptoms. For boys, having more prosocial friends was also linked with higher self-efficacy and fewer internalizing symptoms; however, there was no statistically significant association between having more antisocial friends and self-efficacy. The study discusses the cultural and gender aspects of child socialization in the context of antisocial and prosocial friends, and the development of internalizing behavior problems.

Keywords: internalizing behavior problems; generalized self-efficacy; antisocial friends; prosocial friends; anxiety; depression; somatic complaints (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/5/144/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/5/144/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:12:y:2022:i:5:p:144-:d:940619

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().