Understanding shyness in Chinese children: Temperament, physiological reactivity, and psychosocial adjustment

The purpose of this study was to investigate shyness in 191 Mainland Chinese children (M = 10.20 years; SD = 0.63). Children's temperament, physiological reactivity and psychosocial adjustment were examined to understand how different forms of shyness emerge and are expressed behaviorally in Chinese culture. Mothers and teachers completed questionnaires about children's shyness, temperament, and social preference, and children rated their loneliness and social anxiety, and their peers' shyness and social preference. Children were also observed in a laboratory procedure where their mean heart period and vagal tone were measured. The results showed that three forms of shyness, stranger, anxious and executive shyness, could be distinguished. Stranger and anxious shyness were positively associated with children's negative affectivity. Children's self-regulation was positively associated with their executive shyness, but negatively associated with anxious shyness. Children who were shy toward strangers had short mean heart periods and a low vagal tone when confronting an adult stranger in the laboratory session, whereas anxiously shy children had a similar pattern of cardiovascular reactivity in a card-sorting task. There was no relation between executive shyness and children's mean heart period and vagal tone. Executive shyness was positively associated with children's social preference ratings and negatively associated with their self-reported social anxiety and loneliness. The reverse findings held for anxious shyness. Stranger shyness was positively associated with children's social anxiety and loneliness, but was not associated with children's social preference ratings. These findings highlight the importance of biology and culture in shaping behavioral expression of children's shyness in Chinese culture.