Shyness in late childhood: relations with attributional styles and self-esteem.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Shyness in late childhood is related to social and psychological problems. The present study examined the relations among shyness, attributional styles and self-esteem. It was hypothesized that self-esteem mediated the effects of attributional styles on shyness. METHODS: Self-reported data on degree of shyness, attributional styles and self-esteem were obtained from 326 Chinese children with mean age of 10.85 years. RESULTS: It was found that positive attributional styles predicted shyness in the negative direction and the effects were fully mediated by self-esteem, and negative attributional styles predicted shyness in the positive direction both directly and through self-esteem. CONCLUSION: The results imply that how children attribute positive and negative outcomes affect both self-esteem and shyness. It is suggested that practitioners should conduct attribution-retraining workshops for shy children and help teachers and parents learn how to mitigate negative attributional style and foster positive attributional styles in children.