Poster #227 - Shyness and Socio-Emotional Functioning in Chinese Kindergarteners: The Moderating Role of Social Problem Solving Abilities

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Background & Aims: Shyness is a temperamental trait characterized by excessive social anxiety and self-consciousness when encountering novel social settings and perceived social-evaluated concerns. Starting in early childhood, shyness has been associated with a host of socio-emotional maladjustment outcomes, including loneliness, depressive symptoms, social anxiety, peer problems (e.g., lower peer acceptance, peer rejection and exclusion), as well as school adjustment difficulties (e.g., school avoidance, lower school liking, and poor academic achievement). Rubin and Krasnor (1983) defined social problem solving abilities as the strategies adopted to achieve a personal goal in challenging social settings. Children with higher social problem solving abilities would promote the social interactions, whereas children who lack social problem solving abilities may be at developmental risk and lead to negative outcomes, including negative self-perceptions, aggression, peer exclusion, and passive-withdrawal. However, there is relatively little research explored the relations among shyness, social problem solving abilities and adjustment outcomes. Thus, the goal of the present study was to explore the moderating role of child social problem solving in the prediction of adjustment outcomes of young shy children. Consistent with prior research, it was hypothesized that child social problem solving may serve a protective role in the nature of shyness and outcomes.
Methods: Participants were 360 children (200 boys, 160 girls, Mage = 4.72 years, SD = 0.63) recruited from two public two public schools (13 classrooms) in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Chinese children attend kindergarten for three years (i.e., at ages 3-4 years attending junior class, 4-5 years attending middle class, and 5-6 years attending senior class). All children in the present study were the Han nationality (the predominant ethnic group in China). Data were collected at two time points separated by 1.5 years. At Time 1, mothers rated their children’s shyness (Child Social Preference Scale). Children were interviewed individually by research assistant about social problem solving using four typical peer interaction situations. One-and-a-half years later at Time 2, teachers completed children’s prosocial behavior, asocial behavior, peer exclusion, anxiety, and learning problems (Child Behavior Scale and Teacher Behavior Rating Scale).
Results: The results indicated that child shyness was significantly and negatively associated with child social problem solving abilities, significantly and positively associated with teacher-rated peer exclusion, asocial behavior, and anxiety (marginally significant). Child social problem solving abilities was significantly and negatively associated with teacher-rated peer exclusion and anxiety. The SPSS macro PROCESS (Hayes, 2012) was computed to explore the moderators (i.e., child social problem solving abilities) in the associations between shyness and child social adjustment. The results indicated that significant shyness × child social problem solving was found in the prediction of teacher-rated child peer exclusion, asocial behavior, anxiety, and learning problems. Specifically, at lower levels of child problem solving, shyness was more strongly negatively associated with asocial behavior, peer exclusion, anxiety, and learning problems, whereas at higher levels of problem solving, these associations were attenuated.

Authors

• Jingjing Zhu, Shanghai Normal University
  Presenting Author

• Yan Li, Shanghai Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author