Shyness and children's emotionality, regulation, and coping: contemporaneous, longitudinal, and across-context relations.
The relations of teachers' and parents' reports of children's shyness (i.e., social inhibition) at ages 6-8, 8-10, and 10-12 years to dispositional regulation, emotionality, and coping were examined. Shyness was positively related to internalizing negative emotion, coping by doing nothing, and, for parent-rated shyness, behavioral inhibition/nonimpulsivity, attention focusing, and avoidant coping; it was negatively related to positive emotionality, instrumental coping, seeking support from teachers (at younger ages), and for teacher-rated shyness, attentional control. Often prediction held over several years and/or across reporters. Parent-reported internalizing negative emotion at age 4-6 predicted shyness at ages 6-8 and 8-10, but primarily for children low in attention shifting. Teacher-rated shyness was related to low social status; parent-rated shyness correlated with boys' adult-rated social status at age 4-6 and with style of social interaction, particularly for girls. The relation between parent- and teacher-reported shyness decreased with age. The overall pattern of findings was partially consistent with the conclusion that parent-rated shyness reflected primarily social wariness with unfamiliar people (i.e., temperamental shyness), whereas teacher-rated shyness tapped social inhibition due to social evaluative concerns.
Eisenberg
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Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe 85287-1104, USA. nancy.eisenberg@asu.edu
Shepard
S A
SA
Fabes
R A
RA
Murphy
B C
BC
Guthrie
I K
IK
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010553:Personality Development; D012792:Shyness; D012931:Social Environment; D012938:Social Perception; D012963:Sociometric Techniques