Effects of Young Children’s Shyness on Social Withdrawal of Young Children: Focusing on Moderating Effects of Teacher-Child Relationships

Abstract

This study examined the effects of children`s shyness and relationships with their teacher in regards to social withdrawal. Two questionnaires were conducted with mothers and teachers of 242 three to five-year-olds attending a childcare center in Sejong city. SPSS 18.0 was used to implement descriptive analyses and hierarchical regression analyses. The results indicated that main effects of lack of sociability and assertiveness as well as interaction effects between lack of assertiveness and intimate relationship on social withdraw were found when the child- teacher relationship was intimate. The results suggested that intimate child-teacher relationships adjusted to lack of assertiveness in the child. Meanwhile, interaction effects between lack of sociability and lack of assertiveness and between self-consciousness and child-teacher conflictual relationship were found in child-teacher conflictual relationships. The results indicated that the influence on alleviating social withdrawal behavior of children with a high level of shyness was limited despite establishing a close relationship with a teacher. However, the social withdrawal behavior of children became more intense if they were in a conflict relationship with a teacher; this tendency was also shown more significantly in shier children. This suggests that children`s unamicable relationship with a teacher may function as a risk factor to cause social withdrawal behavior. Therefore, it is important that a teacher has the capability to understand the individual characteristics of children, particularly shyness, and encourage their sociability of children through positive relationships.