The Consequences of Childhood Peer Rejection

Abstract

Reviews literature on the effects of peer rejection on children's well-being. The authors present what has been learned about the consequences of childhood peer rejection since the publication of J. G. Parker and S. R. Asher's review in the mid 1980s. The chapter examines both intrapersonal, internalizing problems that arise from peer rejection (such as depression, loneliness, poor self-concept, and psychopathology) and interpersonal, externalizing problems (such as aggression, school misbehaviour, delinquency, and criminality). The authors begin with a review of the links between early peer rejection and four broad types of long-term outcomes: academic, general psychopathology, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. After considering the consequences associated with early peer rejection, how and why rejection contributes to later adjustment is discussed.