Shy Children Research Articles

Prenatal paracetamol exposure and neurodevelopmental outcomes in preschool-aged children.

Background:Recent studies have suggested an association between prenatal paracetamol exposure and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. However, these findings may be confounded by unmeasured factors related to maternal use of paracetamol and child outcomes.Objective:To examine the association between duration and timing of prenatal paracetamol exposure on parent-reported communication skills, behaviour, and temperament in preschool-aged children, with focus on the role of unmeasured confounding.Methods:We used data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Linear and generalised linear models with inverse probability weights and robust standard errors were used to quantify the association between prenatal paracetamol exposure and continuous and categorical outcomes.Results:Of the 32 934 children included in our study, 8374 (25.4%), 4961 (15.1%), and 1791 (5.4%) were prenatally exposed to paracetamol in one, two, and three trimesters, respectively. Children exposed to paracetamol in two trimesters scored lower on shyness compared with unexposed children (β −0.62, 95% confidence interval [CI] −1.05, −0.19). Children exposed to paracetamol in three trimesters had a moderate increased risk of internalising behaviour problems (relative risk (RR) 1.36, 95% CI 1.02, 1.80) and borderline externalising behaviour problems (RR 1.22, 95% CI 0.93, 1.60) compared with unexposed children. Children exposed to paracetamol in 2nd/3rd trimester scored lower on shyness (β −0.32, 95% CI −0.66, 0.02) compared with unexposed children. Sensitivity analyses indicated that unmeasured confounders play an important role and may potentially bias the effect estimates away from the null.Conclusions:Timing of exposure and short-term use of paracetamol during pregnancy do not seem to pose any substantial risk of the outcomes examined. Although we found an association between paracetamol use in multiple trimesters and lower shyness and greater internalising behaviour in preschool-aged children, we cannot rule out chance or unmeasured confounding as possible explanations for these findings.

Teachers’ understandings of shyness: Psychosocial differentiation for student inclusion

Shyness is not a recognised special educational need, yet studies reveal that shy children underperform academically and present psychosocial vulnerabilities. We present a Norwegian study of elementary school teachers who have experience in working with shy children. Framed by a cultural–historical understanding that concepts are tools employed by teachers as they work on problems of practice, the study examined (i) how shyness is a concept allowing teachers to interpret behaviours of children and (ii) why they employ the concept and what demands were being addressed. Data were gathered through post‐observation stimulated recall interviews with 8 teachers and three focus group sessions with 11 teachers. Seeing shyness as a tool for identifying the demands made by children regarded as shy, revealed sets of child behaviours which required two distinct forms of differentiation: (i) augmenting cognitive support with psychosocial feedback to help the child overcome the behaviours impeding their engagement as active learners and (ii) making extra efforts when eliciting children's understandings in order to give formative feedback and support progress through pedagogic sequences. By identifying the behaviours underpinning broad descriptions of shyness, such as anxiety, the analyses show that teachers employ shyness as an overarching concept which reveals psychosocial demands that may not be entirely addressed by the repertoires of responses available to them.

Childhood multi-trajectories of shyness, anxiety and depression: Associations with adolescent internalizing problems

This study tested the specificity of associations between childhood multi-trajectories of shyness, anxiety and depression symptoms and adolescent social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depression, as well as functional impairment. A population sample of 1596 singletons was followed over 15 years. Mothers rated child shyness, anxiety and depression between 1½ and 8 years-old. Adolescents self-reported symptoms of social phobia, GAD and depression at 15 years-old. Multi-trajectories of childhood internalizing symptoms showed developmental heterogeneity. Controlling for perinatal risk factors, low anxiety and depression in childhood were associated with lower GAD, depression and impairment in adolescence. Higher childhood shyness was associated with adolescent social phobia. Higher shyness in girls was a protective factor for GAD, depression and impairment due to depression, while low shyness in boys was linked to higher risk for GAD and impairment due to depression. Our results underline the importance of distinguishing between shyness and different internalizing symptoms.

Italian validation of the Children's Shyness Questionnaire: Exploring associations between shyness and psychosocial functioning.

BackgroundIn recent years, researchers have begun to explore the implications of shyness for the psychosocial wellbeing of children and adolescents, exploring its association with internalizing problems. Research in an Italian context is hindered by the lack of a validated self-report measure of shyness. We report two studies aimed to assess the psychometric properties of an Italian translation of the Children’s Shyness Questionnaire (CSQ-it) and investigate its correlations with convergent and divergent constructs. The first study aimed to examine associations between CSQ-it and self-report measures of anxiety and somatic symptoms and attachment with parents and peers. The second study aimed to investigate its relations to internet addiction.MethodsThe self-report measures were completed by 550 participants in the first study and 131 participants in the second study. Parents provided information on their child’s problems. Psychometric properties were assessed by Cronbach’s alpha in both studies and by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in Study 1. The relations between shyness and measures of internalizing problems and attachments were analyzed by correlational methods. In Study 2 a moderated mediation model tested the hypothesis that the relationship between shyness and internet addiction is mediated by somatic symptoms and that shyness moderates the relationship between somatic symptoms and internet addiction.ResultsThe reliability and validity of the Italian Version of the Children’s Shyness Questionnaire were satisfactory. Results from confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the single-factor model of the questionnaire previously identified in North American and Chinese studies. There were significant correlations between shyness, anxious and somatic symptomatology, impaired psychosocial functioning and specific components of attachment relationships. In Study 2 the indirect effect of shyness on internet addiction through somatic symptoms was significant as well as significantly moderated for high shyness scores but not for low levels of shyness.ConclusionTo our knowledge this is the first study that explored the psychometric proprieties of the Children’s Shyness Questionnaire in the Italian context. Findings demonstrated that this self-reported measure of shyness has sound psychometric properties and can be used as a sensitive and appropriate instrument for the assessment of shyness in children and adolescents.

Shy children's understanding of irony: Better comprehension does not always mean better socioemotional functioning

AbstractChildhood shyness is a risk factor for negative socioemotional outcomes including loneliness and depression. Childhood shyness has also been found to relate to various aspects of pragmatic language. For instance, shyer children rate ironic criticisms (i.e., where a speaker's intended meaning is the opposite of what is literally said) as meaner than do less shy children. This study examined whether relations between shyness and socioemotional functioning (i.e., loneliness, depression, and peer experiences) in children (9–12 years old; N = 169) were moderated by irony comprehension ability. Using a series of vignettes and self‐report measures, it was found that shyer children with better irony comprehension skill reported increased loneliness and depression symptoms, as well as fewer prosocial experiences with peers. Similarly, for girls, better comprehension strengthened the relationship between shyness and peer victimization. In contrast, for shy boys, better irony comprehension was associated with a reduction in peer victimization. Thus, for certain vulnerable populations, having better sociocommunicative skills may not be advantageous.Highlights The present work examined whether relations between children's reported shyness and socioemotional functioning were moderated by irony comprehension. Children viewed comic strips of characters interacting and completed measures of shyness, loneliness, depression, and peer victimization. Shy children with better irony comprehension reported increased loneliness and depression. Having greater insight into communicative intentions for others may allow shy children to recognize social shortcomings. For certain vulnerable populations, having better sociocommunicative skills may not be advantageous.

Developmental programming of shyness: A longitudinal, prospective study across four decades.

Although shyness is a ubiquitous phenomenon with early developmental origins, little research has examined the influence of prenatal exposures on the developmental trajectory of shyness. Here, we examined trajectories of shyness from childhood to adulthood in three groups (N = 254), with varying degrees of prenatal adversity as indicated by the number of stressful exposures: extremely low birth weight (ELBW; <1000 g) survivors prenatally exposed to exogenous corticosteroids (ELBW+S, n = 56); ELBW survivors not prenatally exposed to exogenous corticosteroids (ELBW+NS, n = 56); and normal birth weight (NBW, n = 142) controls. Multilevel modeling revealed that the ELBW+S individuals exhibited the highest levels of childhood shyness, which remained stable into adulthood. The ELBW+NS and NBW controls had comparably low levels of childhood shyness; however, the ELBW+NS individuals experienced patterns of increasing shyness, while NBW controls displayed decreases in shyness into adulthood. We speculate that individuals exposed to multiple prenatal stressors (i.e., ELBW+S) may be developmentally programmed to be more sensitive to detecting social threat, with one manifestation being early developing, stable shyness, while increasing shyness among ELBW+NS individuals may reflect a later developing shyness influenced by postnatal context. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the developmental origins and developmental course of human shyness from childhood through adulthood.

Taking their eye off the ball: How shyness affects children’s attention during word learning

The current study tests the hypothesis that shy children’s reduced word learning is partly due to an effect of shyness on attention during object labeling. A sample of 20- and 26-month-old children (N = 32) took part in a looking-while-listening task in which they saw sets of familiar and novel objects while hearing familiar or novel labels. Overall, children increased attention to familiar objects when hearing their labels, and they divided their attention equally between the target and competitors when hearing novel labels. Critically, shyness reduced attention to the target object regardless of whether the heard label was novel or familiar. When children’s retention of the novel word–object mappings was tested after a delay, it was found that children who showed increased attention to novel objects during labeling showed better retention. Taken together, these findings suggest that shyer children perform less well than their less shy peers on measures of word learning because their attention to the target object is dampened. Thus, this work presents evidence that shyness modulates the low-level processes of visual attention that unfold during word learning.

Shy toddlers act bold: The roles of respiratory sinus arrhythmia and parent emotion language

Shy children show reticence in social contexts, presumably as a way of regulating their fear. The present study evaluated whether toddler physiological regulation and parent emotion language facilitated shy toddlers’ (21–24 months) engagement with an unfamiliar female examiner. Toddler high basal respiratory sinus arrhythmia was positively associated with bold approach with the examiner. Parent emotion explanations were positively associated with toddler bold approach, particularly for toddlers with low basal respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Findings suggest that toddlers’ dispositional capacity for regulation and parents’ explanations of emotion in everyday conversations with their toddlers may help shy toddlers to socially engage.

Shyness and Socioemotional Functioning in Young Chinese Children: The Moderating Role of Receptive Vocabulary

ABSTRACTThe goal of this study was to explore links among shyness, receptive vocabulary, and indices of socioemotional functioning in a sample of young children in mainland urban China. In particular, we sought to examine the potential moderating role of receptive language in these relations. Participants were N = 360 young children (200 boys, 160 girls, Mage = 4.72 years, SD = 0.63) attending preschool/kindergartens in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Multisource assessments were employed, including maternal ratings (child shyness), standardized tests (receptive vocabulary), child self-reports collected during individual interviews (loneliness), teacher ratings (child internalizing problems), and peer nominations (peer liking). Results indicated that receptive vocabulary moderated (buffering effect) the relations between shyness and several indices of socioemotional functioning. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of language skills for early school adjustment of young shy Chinese children.

Active emotion regulation mediates links between shyness and social adjustment in preschool

AbstractShyness is characterized by the experience of heightened fear, anxiety, and social‐evaluative concerns in social situations and is associated with increased risk for social adjustment difficulties. Previous research suggests that shy children have difficulty regulating negative emotions, such as anger and disappointment, which contributes to problems interacting with others. However, it remains unclear precisely which strategies are involved among these associations. Accordingly, the goal of this study was to explore the mediating role of emotion regulation strategies in the links between young children’s shyness and social adjustment at preschool. Participants were 248 preschool children aged 2.5–5 years. Parents rated children’s shyness and emotion regulation strategies in the context of anger and fear. Early childhood educators assessed indices of social adjustment 4 months later. Among the results, active regulation mediated associations between shyness and subsequent prosocial and socially withdrawn behaviors. Child gender further moderated these linkages, such that the model predicting socially withdrawn behavior was stronger among boys. These results expand on our understanding of emotion regulation strategies in shy children’s early socio‐emotional development.

Longitudinal Pathways From Shyness in Early Childhood to Personality in Adolescence: Do Peers Matter?

Temperamental shyness in childhood is theorized to be an important contributor for adolescent personality. However, empirical evidence for such pathways is scarce. Using longitudinal data (N=939 children, 51% boys) across 17years, the aim of this study was to examine how shyness development throughout childhood predicted personality traits in adolescence, and the role of peers in these associations. Results from piecewise latent growth curve modeling showed early shyness levels to predict lower emotional stability and openness in adolescence, whereas early shyness levels and growth across childhood predicted lower extraversion. Peer problems in early adolescence accounted for these associations. This study is the first to demonstrate the role of childhood shyness and peer relations for adolescents' personality development.

Frontal Brain Asymmetry and the Trajectory of Shyness Across the Early School Years.

Although resting right frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry has been linked to avoidance and withdrawal-related behaviors such as shyness in previous cross-sectional studies, relatively little research has examined the influence of frontal brain electrical activity on the development of shyness in children using a prospective, longitudinal study design. Here, we tested whether resting frontal EEG asymmetry predicted the trajectory of children's shyness across five assessments. Children were enrolled in the study during the summer prior to grade 1 (N = 37; Mage = 6.39years, S.D. = 0.15years), at which time resting frontal EEG activity and maternal report of children's shyness were collected. Mothers then reported on their child's shyness over another four follow-up assessments, spanning 2years (winter of grade 1, summer prior to grade 2 entry, winter of grade 2, and summer prior to grade 3). Growth curve analysis revealed that children displaying greater relative right frontal EEG activity had lower levels of shyness relative to children exhibiting greater relative left frontal EEG activity at study enrollment (i.e., age 6), but displayed statistically significant linear increases in shyness across time, with the highest levels of shyness by the summer prior to grade 3 (i.e., age 8). There was, however, no relation between left frontal EEG asymmetry and change in shyness across time. These preliminary findings suggest that right frontal EEG asymmetry may reflect a biological diathesis for the growth of shyness during the early school years.

Smiling through the shyness: The adaptive function of positive affect in shy children.

Most research treats shyness as a homogenous phenomenon when examining its correlates and consequences, which limits the identification of specific groups of shy children who may be at differential risk for maladaptive social outcomes. Here, we examined whether different types of shyness were uniquely associated with social adjustment and physiological stress reactivity in school-age children (n = 92; Mage = 7.47 years; SD = 2.23 years). During the completion of a videotaped self-presentation task, behavioral measures of positivity and avoidance were coded in order to derive shyness groups (i.e., positive shy: high positivity and high avoidance; negative shy: low positivity and high avoidance; and non-shy: low avoidance). Further, during the self-presentation task, direct observation of activity level was coded, and salivary cortisol reactivity to the social stressor was measured. We also collected parent- and teacher report of children's social anxiety, and parent report of children's sociability. We found that negative shy children were more socially anxious according to both parent- and teacher report, less sociable, and they also displayed reduced activity levels during the speech than the positive shy and non-shy children. Positive shy and non-shy children were indistinguishable across all measures of social behavior. Shyness group had no influence on children's cortisol stress reactivity. Our findings provide support for heterogeneity in the expression of shyness, and highlight that not all shy children experience poor social adjustment. Expression of positivity during socially threatening situations may have an adaptive social function in shy school-age children, as it is associated with reduced social anxiety and increased sociability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Shyness, Self-regulation, and Cognitive Problem Solving in Typically Developing 4-year-olds: A Pilot Study

Because shy children are at risk for poor academic achievement, it is important to examine factors that contribute to variability in the relation between individual differences in shyness and cognitive functioning before school entry. The authors examined whether on-task facilitative private speech—a proxy of self-regulation—moderated the association between individual differences in shyness and performance on an executive function (EF) task in 52 typically developing 4-year-olds. They found that private speech interacted with shyness to predict performance on the EF task in girls but not in boys. More specifically, shyness was inversely related to EF task performance when girls used low amounts of regulatory private speech, but was positively related to performance when girls used high amounts of regulatory private speech. These preliminary findings are discussed in the context of implications for shy children in educational settings.

Shame on me? Shyness, social experiences at preschool, and young children’s self-conscious emotions

In early education contexts, shy children are prone to experiencing difficulties in their relationships with peer and teachers. These negative social experiences may, in turn, reinforce shy children’s feelings of self-consciousness. The aim of the present study was to test a complex model linking shyness with self-conscious emotions (i.e., guilt, shame) through negative social experiences at preschool (i.e., peer difficulties, non-supportive teacher–child relationships). Participants were 131 (64 boys) preschool children (M = 55.89 months, SD = 9.75) and their teachers (two for each classroom). Multi-source assessment was employed, with parents rating children’s shyness and self-conscious emotions (i.e., guilt, shame) and teachers evaluating children’s peer difficulties (i.e., rejection, victimization) and the quality (i.e., closeness) of their relationship with each child. Results from path analysis revealed an indirect effect between shyness and self-conscious emotions through negative peer experiences (but not via close teacher–child relationships). More specifically, shyness predicted peer difficulties, which in turn predicted feelings of guilt and shame. This study highlights the potential role of negative experiences with peers in helping to account for the link between shyness and children’s negative feelings about themselves. Shy children’s positive experiences with peers should be enhanced at preschool in order to help reduce their feelings of guilt and shame.

The moderating effect of children’s language abilities on the relation between their shyness and play behavior during peer play

ABSTRACT This study was intended to examine the relationship between children’s shyness and play behaviour during peer play, and the moderating effect of the level of children’s language development. Participants were 229 South Korean children aged 48–53 months. The results of the study are as follows. Children's shyness was negatively associated with their positive play interactions and positively associated with their play disconnection. Children's receptive language skills moderated the relationships between their shyness and positive play interactions, as well as between their shyness and play disconnection. However, their expressive language skills did not work as a moderator. The findings of the study indicate that receptive language helps shy children join peer play better than expressive language does, because verbal conversations only become more important later in childhood. Interventions for shy children, particularly those with low language skills, should be tailored to improve their receptive language abilities.

Longitudinal relations of preschoolers’ dispositional and situational anger to their prosocial behavior: The moderating role of shyness

AbstractGenerally, research on children’s anger and prosocial outcomes has been inconsistent, perhaps because researchers have overlooked nuances in children’s anger, such as whether the emotion is situational versus dispositional or is in response to blocked goals versus violations of moral principles (e.g., unfairness). Additionally, mixed findings may be due to potential moderators such as shyness. In this study, we investigated the unique relations of children’s (n = 192, 54.7% boys; Mage = 41.75 months) dispositional and situational anger in response to unfairness at 42 months old to their prosocial behavior toward strangers a year later. Further, we examined whether children’s shyness moderated the relations. Longitudinal models controlling for stability of the constructs showed that dispositional anger was unrelated to prosocial behavior whereas situational anger positively predicted later prosocial behavior. Further, children’s shyness moderated the relation between situational anger (but not dispositional anger) and prosocial behavior. For shy children, prosocial behavior toward strangers was low, regardless of anger; for those who were low or average in shyness, situational anger positively predicted prosocial behavior. The findings suggest that when children are not too shy to approach strangers, anger in response to unfairness may be an important precursor for later other‐oriented moral tendencies.

Trajectory of heart period to socioaffective threat in shy children.

Although shyness is characterized by distinct psychophysiological correlates, we know very little about the development of these correlates. In this longitudinal study, we examined how children's shyness was associated with trajectories of heart period (HP) to socioaffective threat across four assessments spanning approximately 2 years. Children (Mage =6.39years) viewed age-appropriate, socioaffective videos at each visit while having their HP measured concurrently. A growth curve analysis revealed that low shy children had a relatively lower HP at enrollment, but experienced increases in HP across visits, while high shy children exhibited relatively stable low HP across visits while viewing threat-related socioaffective video stimuli. These patterns did not exist for HP during resting baseline or HP to nonthreatening video stimuli. These findings suggest that longitudinal patterns of HP among shy children may reflect a stable, characteristic way of responding to socioaffective threat, and possibly a physiological mechanism underlying shyness in some children.

Cross-Lagged Panel Analyses of Child Shyness, Maternal and Paternal Authoritarian Parenting, and Teacher-Child Relationships in Mainland China

The goal of this study was to explore longitudinal associations among child shyness, harsh maternal and paternal parenting styles, and close teacher-child relationships in the cultural context of contemporary urban China. Participants were N = 1,154 third through seventh-grade students (566 boys, 588 girls; Mage = 10.78 years, SD = 1.55), recruited from schools in Shanghai, P. R. China. Data were collected at two time-periods over a one-year period using multi-source assessments. Children provided self-reports of shyness, mothers and fathers rated their own harsh parenting, and teachers assessed teacher-child relationships. Among the results, shyness predicted increased incremental change in harsh parenting (for both mothers and fathers) and incremental decrease in close teacher-child relationships one year later. Results are discussed in terms of the evolving meaning and implications of child shyness in contemporary Chinese culture.

Becoming prosocial peers: The roles of temperamental shyness and mothers’ and fathers’ elaborative emotion language

AbstractUsing a sample of 99 2‐ to 5‐year‐olds (51 girls, 48 boys), we evaluated whether parent‐reported temperamental shyness was associated with prosocial behaviors with same‐aged peers, and considered parenting (use of elaborative emotion language) and parent and child gender as possible moderators of relations between shyness and prosocial behaviors. Active and passive forms of prosocial behavior were evaluated when children were with familiar and unfamiliar peers. There were no direct associations between shyness and peer prosocial behaviors. Fathers’ emotion elaboration predicted more active prosocial behavior with familiar peers. There were significant moderating effects of parental emotion language, and parent and child gender, on relations between shyness and prosocial behavior. When mothers used more emotion elaboration, less shy children showed more active prosocial behavior toward unfamiliar peers and less passive prosocial behavior with familiar peers. Conversely, when fathers used more emotion elaboration, more shy boys engaged in more active prosocial behaviors with unfamiliar peers. These findings suggest that multiple social and contextual factors influence whether shy children become proactive helpers and sharers. Shy boys may particularly benefit from emotion elaboration from fathers whereas less shy children may be most prepared to benefit from mothers’ emotion language.