RESUMEN
Although temperamental shyness is conceptualized as a trait marked by cautiousness, we know relatively little about its relation to risk-taking. We examined how shyness was related to opportunities for risk-taking while considering how social context (i.e., presence of peers) and developmental stage (i.e., children and adolescents) might influence this relation. In the current study, 198 children (Mage = 10.17 years) and 221 adolescents (Mage = 13.46 years) completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) alone or during a peer observation manipulation. For children and adolescents, shyness was related to physiological arousal and self-reporting feeling anxious during the peer condition. However, peer observation did not influence the relation between shyness and behavioral responses during the BART. Across both alone and peer conditions, shyness was related to a longer response time for children and adolescents, which may reflect decisional conflict during risk-taking opportunities. Furthermore, shyness in children (but not in adolescents) was related to poorer performance (i.e., fewer points), whereas shyness was unrelated to risk-taking propensity (i.e., number of pumps) for both children and adolescents. Overall, although the presence of peers may induce anxiety during a risk-taking opportunity for children and adolescents higher in shyness, this does not appear to modify their risk-taking behaviors. Instead, shyer children and adolescents in general may take a longer time to decide whether to act in a risky manner, whereas shy children in particular may show poorer performance in obtaining a reward on a risk-taking task.
Asunto(s)
Grupo Paritario , Asunción de Riesgos , Timidez , Humanos , Masculino , Femenino , Adolescente , Niño , Ansiedad/psicología , Conducta del Adolescente/psicología , Conducta Infantil/psicologíaRESUMEN
The ability to detect and recognize facial emotions emerges in childhood and is important for understanding social cues, but we know relatively little about how individual differences in temperament may influence early emotional face processing. We used a sample of 419 children (Mage = 10.57 years, SD = 1.75; 48% female; 77% White) to examine the relation between temperamental shyness and early stages of emotional face processing (assessed using the P100 and N170 event-related potentials) during different facial expressions (neutral, anger, fear, and happy). We found that higher temperamental shyness was related to greater P100 activation to faces expressing anger and fear relative to neutral faces. Further, lower temperamental shyness was related to greater N170 activation to faces expressing anger and fear relative to neutral faces. There were no relations between temperamental shyness and neural activation to happy faces relative to neutral faces for P100 or N170, suggesting specificity to faces signaling threat. We discuss findings in the context of understanding the early processing of facial emotional display of threat among shy children.
Asunto(s)
Reconocimiento Facial , Timidez , Niño , Humanos , Femenino , Masculino , Reconocimiento Facial/fisiología , Emociones/fisiología , Potenciales Evocados/fisiología , Ira , Expresión Facial , ElectroencefalografíaRESUMEN
It has been theorized that the contagion of behaviors may be related to social cognitive abilities, but empirical findings are inconsistent. We recorded young adults' behavioral expression of contagious yawning and contagious smiling to video stimuli and employed a multi-method assessment of sociocognitive abilities including self-reported internal experience of emotional contagion, self-reported trait empathy, accuracy on a theory of mind task, and observed helping behavior. Results revealed that contagious yawners reported increases in tiredness from pre- to post-video stimuli exposure, providing support for the internal experience of emotional contagion, and were more likely to provide help to the experimenter relative to non-contagious yawners. Contagious smilers showed stably high levels of self-reported happiness from pre- to post-video exposure, were more likely to provide help to the experimenter, and had increased accuracy on a theory of mind task relative to non-contagious smilers. There were no differences in self-reported trait empathy for contagious versus non-contagious yawners or smilers. Contagious yawning may be related to some basic (i.e., emotional contagion) and advanced (i.e., helping behavior) sociocognitive processes, whereas contagious smiling is related to some advanced sociocognitive processes (i.e., theory of mind and helping behavior).
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Sonrisa , Bostezo , Adulto Joven , Humanos , Emociones , Empatía , Cognición , Conducta Imitativa , Conducta SocialRESUMEN
Although preoperative anxiety affects up to 75% of children undergoing surgery each year and is associated with many adverse outcomes, we know relatively little about individual differences in how children respond to impending surgery. We examined whether patterns of anterior brain electrical activity (i.e., a neural correlate of anxious arousal) moderated the relation between children's shyness and preoperative anxiety on the day of surgery in 70 children (36 girls, Mage = 10.4 years, SDage = 1.7, years, range 8 to 13 years) undergoing elective surgery. Shyness was assessed using self-report approximately 1 week prior to surgery during a preoperative visit (Time 1), preoperative anxiety was assessed using self-report, and regional EEG (left and right frontal and temporal sites) was assessed using a dry sensory EEG headband on the day of surgery (Time 2). We found that overall frontal EEG alpha power moderated the relation between shyness and self-reported preoperative anxiety. Shyness was related to higher levels of self-reported anxiety on the day of surgery for children with lower average overall frontal alpha EEG power (i.e., higher cortical activity) but not for children with higher average overall frontal alpha EEG power (i.e., lower cortical activity). These results suggest that the pattern of frontal brain activity might amplify some shy children's affective responses to impending surgery. Findings also extend prior results linking children's shyness, frontal brain activity, and anxiety observed in the laboratory to a real-world, ecologically salient environment.
RESUMEN
Shyness can manifest on behavioral, affective, and physiological levels, but little is known about how these components cluster. We coded behavioral expressions of avoidance/inhibition, collected self-reported nervousness, and measured cardiac vagal withdrawal in 152 children (Mage = 7.82 years, 73 girls, 82% White) to a speech task in 2018-2021. A latent profile analysis using these behavioral, affective, and physiological indicators revealed four profiles: average reactive (43%), lower affective reactive (20%), higher affective reactive (26%), and consistently higher reactive (11%). Membership in the higher reactive profile predicted higher parent-reported temperamental shyness across 2 years. Findings provide empirical support for the long-theorized idea that shyness might exist as an emotional state but also represents a distinct temperamental quality for some children.
Asunto(s)
Conducta Infantil , Timidez , Femenino , Humanos , Niño , Conducta Infantil/psicología , Emociones , Ansiedad/psicologíaRESUMEN
Previous work has shown that children's shyness is related to personal anxiety during social stress, but we know little about how shyness is related to anxiety during a peer's social stress. Children (Mage = 10.22 years, SD = 0.81, N = 62) were paired with an unfamiliar peer and engaged in a speech task while electrocardiography was recorded. We modeled changes in children's heart rate, a physiological correlate of anxiety, while they observed their peer prepare and deliver a speech. Results revealed that the observing child's shyness related to increases in their heart rate during their peer's preparation period, but modulation of this arousal was sensitive to the presenting peer's anxious behavior while delivering their speech. Specifically, if the presenting child displayed high levels of anxious behavior, the observing child's shyness was related to further increases in heart rate, but if the presenting child displayed low levels of anxious behavior, the observing child's shyness was related to decreases in heart rate from the preparation period. Shy children may experience physiological arousal to a peer's social stress but can regulate this arousal based on social cues from the peer, which may be due to heightened social threat detection and/or empathic anxiety.
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Ansiedad , Timidez , Humanos , Niño , Empatía , Frecuencia Cardíaca/fisiología , Nivel de AlertaRESUMEN
Generation Z (1997-2012) has been characterized in the popular media as more socially inhibited, cautious, and risk averse than prior generations, but are these differences found between generations on an empirical level? And, if so, are these differences observable within generations in response to acute events such as the COVID-19 pandemic? Using a simplified time-lagged design to control for age effects, we examined between-group differences in self-reported shyness in young adult participants (N = 806, age: 17-25 years) at the same developmental age and university from the millennial generation (tested: 1999-2001; n = 266, Mage = 19.67 years, 72.9% female) and Generation Z (tested: 2018-2020), the latter generation stratified into prepandemic (n = 263, M = 18.86 years, 82.4% female) and midpandemic (n = 277, Mage = 18.67 years, 79.6% female) groups. After first establishing measurement invariance to ensure trustworthy group comparisons, we found significantly higher mean levels of shyness across each successive cohort, starting with millennials, through Generation Z before the pandemic, to Generation Z during the pandemic.
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COVID-19 , Timidez , Adulto Joven , Humanos , Femenino , Adolescente , Adulto , Masculino , Pandemias , Autoinforme , AfectoRESUMEN
Although correlates of temperamental regulatory processes in childhood have been well established, there is considerably less work examining correlates and moderators of rudimentary forms of temperamental regulation in infancy. We examined whether infants' physiological regulation indexed via changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) across phases of the Still-Face Paradigm moderated the association between maternal-reported infant regulatory capacity at 8 months (N = 50, Mage = 8.51 months, SDage = 0.28 months, 25 girls) and behavior problems at 14 months. We found that cardiac vagal regulation from baseline to still-face moderated the relation between infant regulatory capacity at 8 months and behavior problems at 14 months. Among infants who displayed relatively high cardiac vagal regulation from baseline to still-face, regulatory capacity was negatively associated with behavior problems. There was no relation between regulatory capacity and behavior problems among infants who displayed average or relatively low cardiac vagal regulation. We speculate that high levels of regulatory capacity and cardiac vagal regulation may allow infants to focus their attention outward and cope with emotionally evocative environmental demands as they arise even in the absence of external regulation provided by their caregivers.
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Problema de Conducta , Arritmia Sinusal Respiratoria , Lactante , Femenino , Preescolar , Humanos , Recién Nacido , Arritmia Sinusal Respiratoria/fisiología , Arritmia Sinusal , Nervio Vago/fisiología , Frecuencia CardíacaRESUMEN
The prospect of surgery is a unique psychologically threatening context for children, often leading to experiences of preoperative anxiety. Recent research suggests that individual differences in children's temperament may influence responses to the surgical setting. In the present study, we examined whether individual differences in shyness were related to differences in frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) delta-beta correlation, a proposed neural correlate of emotion regulation and dysregulation, among children anticipating surgery. Seventy-one children (36 boys, Mage = 10.3 years, SDage = 1.7 years) undergoing elective surgery self-reported on their own shyness, and their parents also reported on their child's shyness. Using a mobile, dry sensor EEG headband, frontal EEG measures were collected and self- and observer-reported measures of state anxiety were obtained at the children's preoperative visit (Time 1) and on the day of surgery (Time 2). A latent cluster analysis derived classes of low shy (n = 37) and high shy (n = 34) children using the child- and parent-reported shyness measures. We then compared the two classes on frontal EEG delta-beta correlation using between- and within-subjects analyses. Although children classified as high versus low in shyness had higher self- and observer-reported state anxiety across both time periods, frontal EEG delta-beta correlation increased from T1 to T2 only among low shy children using a between-subjects delta-beta correlation measure. We discuss the interpretation of a relatively higher delta-beta correlation as a correlate of emotion regulatory versus dysregulatory strategies for some children in a "real-world," surgical context.
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Electroencefalografía , Timidez , Ansiedad , Niño , Emociones , Femenino , Humanos , Lactante , Masculino , TemperamentoRESUMEN
The authors examined temperamental and sociocognitive predictors of socially anxious behavior from preschool to early adolescence. Children (N = 227; 59% male; 69% White) completed a speech task at ages 5, 7, 10, and 13 and socially anxious behaviors were coded. Behavioral inhibition (BI) was assessed at ages 2/3 and Theory of Mind (ToM) was assessed at age 4. Data collection occurred between 2003 and 2016. Three trajectories of socially anxious behavior were identified: high stable, average increasing, and low stable. Higher BI was related to the high stable trajectory, whereas lower ToM was related to the increasing trajectory of socially anxious behavior. There are heterogenous pathways of socially anxious behavior, which may be uniquely influenced by early temperamental and sociocognitive factors.
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Ansiedad , Teoría de la Mente , Adolescente , Ansiedad/psicología , Niño , Preescolar , Femenino , Humanos , Inhibición Psicológica , Masculino , Instituciones Académicas , Habla , Teoría de la Mente/fisiologíaRESUMEN
The idea that individual differences in resting frontal EEG alpha activity have "trait-like" features that are associated with stress vulnerabilities presumes that these physiological patterns should be stable across time. We know, however, relatively little regarding the very long-term (i.e., ≥10 years) stability of resting frontal EEG alpha power and asymmetry in typically or atypically developing populations. Here, we examined the long-term stability of regional electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha (8-13 Hz) power and asymmetry at rest across a decade in the oldest known prospectively followed cohort of extremely low birth weight (ELBW; <1000 g) adult survivors and normal birth weight (NBW; >2500 g) controls. Regional EEG was collected at rest from the left and right frontal (F3, F4) and parietal (P3, P4) scalp sites using a stretchable cap during baseline eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions in young adulthood (ages 21-25 years) and again in adulthood (ages 30-35 years). We found moderate stability in regional EEG absolute alpha spectral power measures across all scalp sites for each birth weight group between the young adulthood and adulthood assessments. As well, we found the frontal alpha asymmetry measure was stable, albeit weakly, between the two assessment periods only in the NBW group. However, parietal alpha asymmetry was weak-to-moderately stable for each birth weight group across the 10-year period. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding associations between individual differences in frontal and parietal brain activity at rest and long-term stress vulnerability in typical and atypical development.
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Electroencefalografía , Recien Nacido con Peso al Nacer Extremadamente Bajo , Adulto , Peso al Nacer , Estudios de Cohortes , Humanos , Recien Nacido con Peso al Nacer Extremadamente Bajo/fisiología , Recién Nacido , Estudios Longitudinales , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Although the mean age of onset of social anxiety disorder (SAD) is during adolescence, we know relatively little about the neurodevelopmental correlates of subsyndromal social anxiety in early adolescence before SAD manifests. Here we examined frontal EEG alpha/delta ratio (a putative proxy of brain maturation) in relation social anxiety symptoms across early adolescence. Resting regional EEG spectral power measures were collected continuously for 4 min (2 min eyes-open, 2 min eyes-closed) in slow (i.e., delta) and fast (i.e., alpha) frequencies at Time 1, and self-reported social anxiety measures were collected concurrently at Time 1 and then prospectively approximately one year later (Time 2) in 103 typically developing 12- to 14-year-olds (46.6% female, Mage = 12.91 years, SDage = 0.81 years). Using a latent class growth curve analysis, stable high and stable low social anxiety classes were derived from the two assessments. Controlling for children's age, sex, and pubertal development, we found that youth in the stable high social anxiety class were more likely to exhibit a relatively lower frontal alpha/delta ratio, reflecting ostensibly less brain maturation relative to youth in the stable low social anxiety class. Results were specific to social anxiety and did not extend to symptoms of generalized anxiety. Findings are discussed in terms of the putative functions of less brain maturation in understanding individual differences in complex human social behavior.
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Trastornos de Ansiedad , Fobia Social , Adolescente , Ansiedad , Niño , Electroencefalografía , Femenino , Humanos , Lactante , Masculino , DescansoRESUMEN
One long-standing theoretical model of shyness proposes that the origins and maintenance of shyness are associated with an approach-avoidance motivational conflict (Asendorpf, 1990), such that shy individuals are motivated to socially engage (high approach motivation) but are too anxious to do so (high avoidance motivation). However, this model has not been empirically tested in predicting the development of shyness. In two separate longitudinal studies, we used the Carver and White (1994) Behavioral Inhibition and Activation System (BIS/BAS) scales as a proxy of approach-avoidance motivations and growth curve analyses to examine whether individual differences in these hypothesized motivational tendencies were associated with the development of shyness across 3 years from late childhood to adolescence (Study 1, N = 1284; 49.8% female, Mage = 10.72, SDage = 1.73, M level of parental education fell between associate's degree/diploma and undergraduate degree) and across nearly a decade from emerging adulthood to young adulthood (Study 2, N = 83; 57.8% females, Mage = 23.56 years, SDage = 1.09 years, 92.8% had at least a high school education). Contrary to the approach-avoidance conflict model of shyness, we found that a combination of high BIS/low BAS, not high BIS/high BAS, was associated with relatively higher shyness contemporaneously and across development in both studies. We discuss the processes that might link individual differences in approach-avoidance motivations to the development of shyness in adolescence and young adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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Motivación , Timidez , Adolescente , Adulto , Ansiedad , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Inhibición Psicológica , Masculino , Estudiantes , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Temperamental shyness is characterized by fear, wariness, and the perception of threat in response to social novelty. Previous work has been inconsistent regarding attentional patterns to social threat among shy children, with evidence for both avoidance and vigilance. We examined relations between children's shyness and gaze aversion during the approach of a stranger (i.e., a context of social novelty), and tested whether these patterns of gaze moderated relations between shyness and autonomic reactivity and recovery. Participants included 152 typically-developing children (Mage = 7.82 years, SD = 0.44 years) who had their respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) recorded during baseline, social novelty, and recovery. Children's shyness correlated with increases in self-reported nervousness from baseline to social novelty, providing support for perceived threat. Results revealed that children's proportion of gaze aversion from social novelty was related to shyness in a U-shape pattern such that both low levels of gaze aversion (i.e., attentional vigilance) and high levels of gaze aversion (i.e., attentional avoidance) were related to higher levels of shyness. Further, we found that children's shyness was directly related to decreases in RSA from baseline to social novelty, whereas quadratic gaze to social novelty moderated the relation between shyness and RSA recovery. Specifically, shyness was related to greater RSA recovery among children who exhibited attentional vigilance during the novel social interaction. Our findings provide support for both avoidance of, and vigilance to, social threat among different shy children, and these gaze strategies may be differentially related to physiological regulation during novel social encounters.
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Arritmia Sinusal Respiratoria , Timidez , Ansiedad , Atención , Niño , Miedo , Humanos , Arritmia Sinusal Respiratoria/fisiologíaRESUMEN
The authors examined how children's frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) theta/beta ratio-an index of neurocognitive control-changed from baseline to a social stressor, and whether these EEG changes moderated the relation between temperament and anxiety. Children (N = 152; Mage = 7.82 years, 52% male, 81% White) had their EEG recorded during a baseline and speech anticipation condition. Children's frontal theta/beta ratio decreased from baseline to speech anticipation, and this baseline-to-task change moderated the relation between temperamental shyness and social anxiety. Temperamental shyness was related to higher state and trait social anxiety only among children with large baseline-to-task decreases in theta/beta ratio. Findings are consistent with theoretical models hypothesizing that temperamentally shy children with heightened neurocognitive control may be at greater risk for anxiety.
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Miedo , Timidez , Ansiedad , Niño , Electroencefalografía , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , TemperamentoRESUMEN
Shyness is a temperament characterized by wariness to social novelty and perceived social evaluation. However, we know relatively little about temperamentally shy children's psychophysiological and affective responses during different phases of social stressors. We examined whether children's temperamental shyness was related to distinct patterns of autonomic and affective responses across three conditions: baseline, speech anticipation, and speech delivery. Participants included 152 children (Mage = 7.82 years, SD = 0.44) who had their autonomic nervous system activity [respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and heart rate (HR)] and subjective nervousness assessed across each experimental condition. Children's temperamental shyness was assessed according to parent- and child-report. Using a latent difference score framework to model dynamic changes across task phases, we found that higher levels of parent-reported shyness was related to decreases in RSA from baseline to speech anticipation followed by increases in RSA from speech anticipation to delivery. Further, higher levels of parent-reported shyness were related to increases in HR from baseline to speech anticipation, and higher levels of child-reported shyness was related to increases in subjective nervousness from baseline to speech anticipation. These findings illustrate that children with higher levels of temperamental shyness may experience autonomic and emotion dysregulation particularly during the anticipation of social stressors, which may reflect their tendency to react to perceived impending social threat on both physiological and affective levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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Arritmia Sinusal Respiratoria , Habla , Ansiedad , Sistema Nervioso Autónomo , Niño , Humanos , TimidezRESUMEN
Selective mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder in which a child fails to speak in some situations (e.g., school) despite the ability to speak in other situations (e.g., home). Some work has conceptualized SM as a variant of social anxiety disorder (SAD) characterized by higher levels of social anxiety. Here, we empirically tested this hypothesis to see whether there were differences in social anxiety (SA) between SM and SAD across behavioral, psychophysiological, self-, parent-, and teacher-report measures. Participants included 158 children (Mage = 8.76 years, SD = 3.23) who were classified into three groups: children with SM and who were also highly socially anxious (SM + HSA; n = 48), highly socially anxious children without SM (HSA; n = 48), and control children (n = 62). Children participated in a videotaped self-presentation task, following which observed SA behaviors were coded, and salivary cortisol reactivity was measured. We also collected child, parent, and teacher reports of children's trait SA symptoms. The SM + HSA and HSA groups had similar observed non-verbal SA behavior, cortisol reactivity, and trait SA symptom levels according to parent and child reports, but SM + HSA children had significantly higher SA according to teacher report and observer-rated verbal SA behavior relative to the HSA group. As expected, control children had lower cortisol reactivity and SA across all measures relative to the other groups. Although SM and SAD in children share many similarities, SM may be characterized by greater SA in certain social contexts (e.g., school) and is distinguishable from SAD on behavioral measures of verbal SA.
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Mutismo/diagnóstico , Fobia Social/diagnóstico , Estudios de Casos y Controles , Niño , Diagnóstico Diferencial , Femenino , Humanos , Hidrocortisona/análisis , Masculino , Padres , Saliva/química , Maestros , Autoinforme , Grabación de Cinta de VideoRESUMEN
Positive shyness is thought to be an approach-dominant form of shyness, whereas non-positive shyness is thought to be an avoidance-dominant form of shyness. This study examined electrocortical and behavioral correlates of motivation and emotion in relation to these shy subtypes in 67 children (Mage = 10.41 years, SD = 3.23). Using resting state electroencephalography, findings revealed that positive shy and low shy children had greater relative left frontal alpha asymmetry compared to non-positive shy children, and positive shy children had a higher frontal delta-beta correlation compared to other groups. Non-positive shy children scored highest on parent-reported school avoidance. These findings converge with previous work reporting distinct correlates in positive and non-positive shyness, extending this to two brain measures of motivation and emotion.
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Encéfalo/fisiología , Electroencefalografía , Timidez , Adolescente , Ritmo alfa/fisiología , Ritmo beta/fisiología , Encéfalo/anatomía & histología , Niño , Ritmo Delta/fisiología , Emociones/fisiología , Femenino , Lóbulo Frontal/anatomía & histología , Lóbulo Frontal/fisiología , Lateralidad Funcional/fisiología , Humanos , Masculino , Motivación/fisiología , Instituciones AcadémicasRESUMEN
Although children's self-regulation has been conceptualized positively, there may be individual differences in self-regulatory processes, some of which might not be adaptive depending on temperamental factors. We examined whether individual differences in children's self-regulation (i.e., inhibitory control and attentional shifting) moderated the association between shyness and social behavior in multiple social contexts (N = 156 children, 74 girls; Mage = 4.06 years, SD = 0.78). Only in children with high attentional shifting was shyness associated with lower levels of social support seeking during a frustration task and with lower levels of social engagement during a stranger approach task. These results were not attributable to differences in baseline physiological arousal indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia. These findings suggest that for some shy children, high levels of self-regulation may be less adaptive, leading to rigidity or over-control in some social contexts, possibly hindering social interaction.
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Atención/fisiología , Individualidad , Autocontrol , Timidez , Conducta Social , Preescolar , Femenino , Humanos , Inhibición Psicológica , Masculino , Medio Social , Percepción SocialRESUMEN
Shyness can manifest as inhibition, fear, and avoidance in the context of social novelty and situations of perceived social evaluation. In the present study, 130 children (Mage = 7.6 years, SD = 1.8) participated in a videotaped self-presentation task across three separate visits spanning approximately 3 years in early and middle childhood. Children's observed shyness was best characterized by two trajectories, including a high-stable class (19%) and a low-stable class (81%). Girls were more likely than boys to follow a pattern of high-stable observed shyness. Further, children in the high-stable observed shyness class were rated by parents and teachers as more socially anxious relative to children in the low-stable class, and boys in the high-stable observed shyness class were rated by their teachers as displaying more depressive symptoms relative to girls. These findings suggest that a subset of children display stable behavioral shyness, and this is correlated with psychosocial functioning.