The Mediator Effect of Emotion Negativity on Internalizing Behaviours in Shy Children

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

Shyness refers to social fear and anxiety in the presence of peers that inhibit the child’s desire to engage in social interaction (e.g., Coplan, Prakash, O’Neil, & Armer, 2004). Shy children are at increased risk for adjustment difficulties at school such as peer-relationship difficulties, academic problems and social emotion development. Shy children tend to display withdrawal and avoidance behaviour as a way to cope with their emotion response in unfamiliar social situations (Coplan & Rubin, 1998; Rubin et al., 2009). However; emotion negativity can be effect their desire and anxiety. Emotion negativity is seen that important factor to regulate interactions with peers (Ramani,Brownell & Campbell, 2010; Kim-Spoon, Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2013). Internalizing problems are characterized and regulated by different emotions such as emotion regulation and emotion negativity/lability.
The aim of the present study was to explore the mediatoring role of emotion negativity in the relation between shyness and internalizing behaviours. We hypothesized that the relation between shyness and internalizing behaviour would be mediatored emotion negativity. Participants were 222 three to six-year-old children (M= 58.20 months, SD = 10.71, 116 girls, 106 boys). Teachers reported their shyness, emotion negativity/lability and internalizing behavior (anxiety – withdrawal).
In this study, the mediating role of emotion negativity concerning the relationship between shyness and internalizing behavior was examined with regression analyses, as suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986). Data analyses were performed using SPSS 22.0. After testing for assumptions, preliminary analyses involved computing correlations among all main study variables. Next, the SPSS macro PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) with nonparametric bootstrapping with 1,000 resamples was employed to explore emotion negativity as mediator in the associations between shyness and internalizing behavior. For model, unsociability, were entered as a control variable. simultaneously. All continuous predictor variables were standardized before examining moderating effects (Aiken & West, 1991)
Age and gender were not related to any variables. Shyness was associated with unsociability emotion negativity and anxiety – withdrawal behaviors. Moreover, emotion negativity was correlated with shyness and anxiety – withdrawal behaviors (see Table 1). In model, shyness (β = .38, p < .001), emotion negativity (β = .13, p < .001) and unsociability (β = .40, p = < .001) predicted internalizing behavior. There was a significant direct effect of shyness (c' path: β = .38, p < .001, 95% CI [.29, .52]), as a predicted variable, on internalizing behavior. The total effect was also significant (c path: β = .41, p < .001, 95% CI [.27, .50]). However; As a predictive indirect effect of mediating variables in shyness on internalizing behavior, emotion negativity is not significant (β = .02, p ≥ .05; 95% CI [-.00, .06]) (see Table 2). As a result, emotion negativity predicted internalizing behavior, but not a mediator between shyness and internalizing behavior, under the control of unsociability.

Authors

• Pelin Ülker Atav, Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Özge Metin Aslan, Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University
  Presenting Author