The Impact Of Shyness On Internalizing Behavior Problems In Adolescent

Shyness refers to the behavioral tendency of individuals to withdraw when faced with unfamiliar situations and perceived social evaluation.Shyness has an important impact on adolescents’ social emotional adaptation.If shy individuals feel that others are likely to make negative comments on them during interpersonal interactions,they may tend to withdraw from social interactions,thus causing internalized behavior problems.On this basis,through two studies,this study introduced social self-efficacy and friendship quality into the process path of shyness affecting adolescents’internalized behavior problems,further explained the process and specific mechanism of shyness’s effect on adolescents’ internalized behavior problems,and provided certain theoretical basis for the influence of shyness on adolescents’ internalized behavior problems.It can also provide reference for intervention programs to improve the adaptation level of shy individuals.In the first study,529 adolescents from grades 6 to 8 were selected from three junior high schools in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai,using the children’s shyness questionnaire,adolescents’ social self-efficacy questionnaire,children’s friendship quality questionnaire,children’s loneliness Scale and children’s Social Anxiety Scale revised version.On the basis of study 1,18 teenagers were selected for interview research in Study 2.The results show that:(1)Gender differences in shyness,friendship quality and social anxiety were significant,and girls were higher than boys.There were significant grade differences in shyness and social anxiety,with eighth graders having significantly higher levels of shyness and social anxiety than seventh and sixth graders.There was no significant difference in the level of shyness and social anxiety between seventh and eighth graders.(2)Shyness was positively correlated with loneliness and social anxiety,while shyness was negatively correlated with social self-efficacy and friendship quality.(3)Shyness can significantly positively predict internalized behavior problems(loneliness,social anxiety),and social self-efficacy and friendship quality play a chain mediating role between shyness and internalized behavior problems.(4)The interview found that the shy group had differences in self-recognition,self-disclosure,interpersonal relationship and internalized behavior problems.Compared with the low shy group,the individuals in the high shy group lack confidence in their own social ability in terms of self-cognition,and have a negative evaluation of others.Therefore,the content of self-disclosure is relatively simple and low in degree,which is not conducive to the construction of good interpersonal relationship,including peer group relationship and dualistic friendship relationship,and further affects the internalized behavior problems of individuals.