Poster #198 - Early Adolescents’ Dispositional and Situational Shyness: Relations with Adjustment

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Shyness is often conceptualized as the trait of being wary or anxious about social novelty and potential social evaluation that is considered stable across situations (e.g., Rubin, Coplan, & Bowker, 2009). However, studies suggest shyness may be situation specific, with peers and context influencing the level of shyness displayed. Some children who are shy when first encountering unfamiliar peers become non-shy when interacting with familiar peers (Asendorpf & Meier, 1993) or after they become familiar with the context (Evans, 1993). Shyness is thought to involve fear of novelty (Buss, 1986); thus, it may be exaggerated with unfamiliar peers. However, little is known about shyness specific to familiar and unfamiliar contexts and their relations to adjustment. In this study, we expected early adolescents’ shyness would be separated into components specific to unfamiliar and familiar situations, and these components would uniquely predict adjustment.
Parents were recruited via Mturk, and completed an online survey about their sixth- to eighth-graders’ (N = 279; 53.8% boys; M age = 12.4 years) shyness during encounters and interactions with familiar and unfamiliar peers (αs = .86 to .93; authors), as well as youths’ adjustment (αs = .78 to .93; Boyce et al., 2002; Essex et al., 2002), including peer relationships (bullied, victimized, rejected), internalizing problems (depressed, overanxious, separation anxiety), and school adjustment (academic achievement, school engagement). Adolescents were of various ethnic/racial and socioeconomic backgrounds (65% White, primarily middle class).
To identify the factor structure of shyness across contexts, a series of alternative confirmatory factor analyses were performed. A bifactor model distinguishing dispositional and situation-specific varieties of shyness fit the data best (Figure 1). In addition to dispositional shyness, adolescents displayed shyness factors unique to the situations of first encountering unfamiliar peers, interacting with unfamiliar peers, and encountering familiar peers, but not interacting with familiar peers, suggesting that observed shyness in the interaction with familiar peers is explained by dispositional, but not context-specific, shyness.
The relations of dispositional and situational shyness with adjustment were examined (Table 1). Dispositional shyness negatively predicted all adjustment variables, suggesting that being shy in all situations is the most powerful indicator of adjustment problems. In addition, shyness specific to the interaction with unfamiliar peers positively predicted being bullied and rejected by peers and overanxious, and negatively predicted school engagement. Having trouble interacting with unfamiliar peers may indicate heightened anxiety and poor social skills, which are associated with school and peer difficulties. Moreover, shyness specific to encountering unfamiliar peers positively predicted separation anxiety but negatively predicted being bullied, perhaps because being shy when encountering strangers helps adolescents avoid potential conflict. Finally, shyness specific to encountering familiar peers did not predict any adjustment problems.
Results showed that dispositional shyness and situational shyness in unfamiliar situations uniquely relate to adjustment problems, suggesting dispositional and situational shyness should be separately considered in intervention. However, because the study is cross-sectional, future studies should utilize longitudinal designs to understand how dispositional and situational shyness influence children’s and adolescents’ development.

Authors

• Danming An, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Sierra Clifford, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Natalie D. Eggum-Wilkens, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author