The Development of Social Withdrawal Research in Childhood and Adolescence Over 70 Years: A Systematic Scoping Review

Social withdrawal has been a topic of interest in the field of developmental psychology for many decades. However, researchers have yet to systematically examine the historical trends in social withdrawal research. To honor the 70th anniversary of Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, this systematic scoping review maps the changes in social withdrawal research with children and adolescents over the studies with unselected samples of children and adolescents (ages 2-19 years) design, measures of social withdrawal, geographic regions) and (2) content/ comes). The included studies showed systematic changes in social withdrawal research for all content areas over the last 70 years. Results are summarized, integrated, and used as a baseline for future research recommendations.