Two studies of shyness

Today, I offer two studies of shyness that seem to me to have quite similar implications. First, Bekkhus, McVarnock, Coplan, Ulset & Kraft (2023) published “Developmental Changes in the Structure of Shyness and Internalizing Symptoms from Early to Middle Childhood: A network analysis” in Child Development. Here’s the abstract:

Shyness is a temperamental trait that shares considerable conceptual overlap with aspects of internalizing problems, creating difficulties in operationalizing and assessing these two constructs and their association. This study addresses these issues by employing network analyses. Participants were white, N = 555 children (Mage = 52.45 months, SD = 15.96, 55% girls) followed longitudinally over 4 years (2016–2010) in Norway. Teachers rated child shyness and assessed children's internalizing symptoms. Results suggest that two behavioral shyness traits were the most central aspects of shyness. The centrality of these aspects was robust across age. The most influential symptom connecting internalizing symptoms with shyness was “unhappy.” Shyness became more differentiated with development, and associations between anxiety-related symptoms and shyness increased as children entered formal schooling.

What I find fascinating is the fact that being shy is connected to internalizing problems only when the child is unhappy. The next study supports this assertion. Sette, Zuffiano, Lopez-Perez, McCagh, Caprara & Coplan (2022) published “Links Between Child Shyness and Indices of Internalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The protective role of positivity” in Journal of Genetic Psychology. Here’s their abstract: 

Shyness in childhood has been linked to socio-emotional difficulties such as anxiety, depression, and loneliness. On the contrary, positivity (i.e., a personal tendency to see oneself, life, and future in a positive light) has been described as a protective factor. Given the challenges experienced by children during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., closure of school and confinement), we aimed to test the potential protective role of positivity and how it may link child shyness and indices of internalizing problems (i.e., anxiety, depression, loneliness) during the first wave of the pandemic. Participants were N = 236 children (Mage = 9.25 years, SD = 1.20) from Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, the three worst-hit countries in Europe when the data were collected (April-June, 2020). Children completed online self-evaluation scales to assess temperamental shyness, positivity, and indices of internalizing problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from a multivariate regression analysis revealed significant interaction effects between shyness and positivity in the prediction of outcome variables. Follow-up simple slope analyses indicated that shyness was positively related to depression only among children with lower levels of positivity. The study highlights the role of children's positivity in buffering the pernicious link between shyness and their negative feelings during the pandemic. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Note that neither study used participants from the US; the children in the latter study are a little older that the ones in the first study. Both however, find shyness doesn’t have to be connected to internalizing problems. Positivity is a potential buffer against internalizing problems and unhappiness may be a catalyst.