title: Shyness Trajectories across the First Four Decades Predict Mental Health Outcomes.
abstract: Although childhood shyness is presumed to predict mental health problems in adulthood, no prospective studies have examined these outcomes beyond emerging adulthood. As well, existing studies have been limited by retrospective and cross-sectional designs and/or have examined shyness as a dichotomous construct. The present prospective longitudinal study (N = 160; 55 males, 105 females) examined shyness trajectories from childhood to the fourth decade of life and mental health outcomes. Shyness was assessed using parent- and self-rated measures from childhood to adulthood, once every decade at ages 8, 12-16, 22-26, and 30-35. At age 30-35, participants completed a structured psychiatric interview and an experimental task examining attentional biases to facial emotions. We found 3 trajectories of shyness, including a low-stable trajectory (59.4%), an increasing shy trajectory from adolescence to adulthood (23.1%), and a decreasing shy trajectory from childhood to adulthood (17.5%). Relative to the low-stable trajectory, the increasing, but not the decreasing, trajectory was at higher risk for clinical social anxiety, mood, and substance-use disorders and was hypervigilant to angry faces. We found that the development of emotional problems in adulthood among the increasing shy trajectory might be explained in part by adverse peer and social influences during adolescence. Our findings suggest different pathways for early and later developing shyness and that not all shy children grow up to have psychiatric and emotional problems, nor do they all continue to be shy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, Canada, L8S 4K1. tanga6@mcmaster.ca.
authors.forename: Alva
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Ryan J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Van Lieshout
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, Canada, L8S 4K1.
authors.forename: Ayelet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lahat
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Duku
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Boyle
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Saroj
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saigal
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, Canada, L8S 4K1.
authors.forename: Louis A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008603:Mental Health; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D000072861:Phobia, Social / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012792:Shyness; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention bias; Mental health; Shyness; Social anxiety; Trajectories