Poster #82 - Children and the Social Self: The Effects of Shyness on Perceptions of Social Agency

• In Event: Poster Session 15

Abstract

Through social exchanges, children develop a sense of who they are as a social being (i.e., social self), including their perceived desirability as a social partner, sense of agency when interacting with peers, and social efficacy (Bukowski & Raufelder, 2018). Children who are shy tend to withdraw from social interaction as a result of social fears and anxiety (Coplan et al., 2009), missing out on important social learning experiences (Suway et al., 2011) that might negatively impact their emerging sense of who they are as social beings. Prior research has established inhibited children underperceive their own social desirability, including likability (Baartmans et al., 2019; Klein et al., 2018) and quality of their friendships (Fordham & Stevenson-Hinde, 1999). We expand on research examining the developing social self by focusing on shy children’s sense of agency, or perceived control over social situations. We examined the link between teacher-reported levels of shyness, self- and peer-report of social power and influence, and accuracy of children’s perceived power and influence (i.e., discrepancy between self- and peer-reported power and influence).
Participants included 360 students from 21 fourth and fifth grade classrooms. Participants rated their own levels of power and influence among peers on a 5-point scale (i.e., “How powerful and influential are you among the students in your class?”). Peer-perceived power and influence was assessed using a paired comparison procedure (i.e., raters were presented with all possible same-sex dyads within the classroom and asked to “Circle the classmate who has more power and influence”; Lease et al., 2002). The difference between peer-perceived and self-perceived social power and influence was calculated by subtracting the standardized score of self-perceived social power and influence from the standardized peer-perceived power and influence score, yielding a discrepancy score (Bartmaan’s et al., 2019). Teachers completed a shortened version of the Inventory of Children’s Individual Differences (ICID; Halverson et al., 2003). The two subscales examined for this study include “Shy” (“is withdrawn”, “slow to warm up to new people or situations”, and “is shy”) and “Sociable” (“sociable”, “outgoing”, “loves to be with other people”, and “makes friends easily”). All peer-, self-, and teacher-report scores were standardized within gender and class (mean=0; std=1).
Initial analyses indicate teacher-rated shyness is significantly and negatively correlated with self- perceived social power and influence, but only for females, r = -.30 (p < . 001). Teacher-rated shyness was significantly and negatively correlated with peer-perceived social power and influence, r = -.32 (p < . 001). Correlations indicate a significant relationship between teacher-rated shyness and the discrepancy between self- and peer-rated power and influence, r = -.11 (p < . 05). In a series of regression analyses, the interaction between shyness and gender was a significant predictor of self- and peer-perceived social power and influence. The discrepancy between self and peer perceptions was not associated with shyness, suggesting shy children’s negative self- perceptions of social agency are accurate and likely reflect actual skill deficits. Accounting for children’s degree of teacher-rated sociability did not change the overall pattern of results.

Authors

• Robert Oberholzer, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author

• Michele Lease, University of Georgia

• Mihyun Kim