کمرویی خود گزارش شده در کودکان چینی: اعتبار یابی پرسشنامه کمرویی کودکان و اکتشاف ارتباط آن با تنظیم و نقش سازگاری

The aims of the present study were to: (1) examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese version on the Children’s Shyness Questionnaire (Crozier, 1995) among elementary school children; and (2) explore the links between shyness, coping style, and indices of socio-emotional functioning. Participants were N = 580 children (311 boys, 269 girls, Mage = 11.14 years, SD = 1.37) in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Measures of shyness, coping style, and adjustment were gathered using multi-source assessments, including self-reports, peer nominations, teacher-ratings. Consistent with findings in North American samples, results from factor analysis suggested a single-factor model of shyness among Chinese youth. Shyness was also associated with a wide range of negative socio-emotional difficulties. As well, emotion-focused coping was found to partially mediate relations between shyness and children’s adjustment. Results are discussed in terms of the validity of this self-reported measure of shyness and the role of coping for shy children’s adjustment in China.

Social withdrawal refers to the process whereby children remove themselves from opportunities for social interactions and frequently display solitary behaviors in social contexts (Coplan & Rubin, 2010). It should be noted that under the wider “umbrella” term of social withdrawal, there are varieties of reasons why children might choose to be alone (Coplan & Armer, 2007). A prominently studied subtype of social withdrawal is shyness, a temperamental trait characterized by excessive wariness and feelings of unease in the face of social novelty and perceived social-evaluation ( Rubin, Coplan, & Bowker, 2009). According to the motivation theory of Asendorpf (1990), shyness reflects a combination of high social-approach motivation and high social-avoidance motivation. Therefore, shy children tend to experience an approach-avoidance conflict, whereby they wish to interact with peers but also fear social situations ( Coplan, Prakash, O’Neil, & Armer, 2004). In recent years, researchers have begun to explore the meaning and implications of shyness in non-Western cultures such as China (Chen, Cen, Li, & He, 2005). For the most part, shyness in these studies has been assessed using peer nomination procedures (e.g., Chen et al., 2005). Although such protocols offer various advantages (i.e., multiple ratings for each child averages across classmates), self-reports may also provide unique advantages for the assessment of shyness (particularly among older children) because of the internal motivational and emotional processes that underlie this construct. Accordingly, the primary goals of this study were to examine the psychometric properties of a newly developed Chinese version of an often-used self-report measure of shyness (Children’s Shyness Questionnaire, Crozier, 1995) and to explore the links between shyness, coping styles, and indices of socio-emotional functioning among Chinese children. 1.1. Shyness and adjustment in Western cultures From early childhood to adulthood, there is now considerable empirical evidence concurrently and predicatively linking shyness with indexes of socio-emotional maladjustment (Rubin et al., 2009). For example, shy children are more likely to report lower self-esteem, greater loneliness and depression, and tend to be rejected by peers (e.g., Coplan et al., 2008, Crozier, 1995 and Ladd et al., 2011). Moreover, extreme shyness also places children at increased risk for the later development of more serious mental health difficulties, including anxiety disorders (e.g., Hirshfeld-Becker et al., 2007). 1.2. Shyness and adjustment in China Culture plays a critical role in the development of children’s social functioning. For example, peers and adults in different cultures may evaluate specific socio-emotional behavior differently (Chen & French, 2008). In traditional Chinese society, wariness and behavioral restraint are thought to be more positively evaluated and highly encouraged, and are thought to reflect social maturity, mastery, and understanding (Chen, 2010 and Ho, 1986). As a result, children who are shy, sensitive, and wary may obtain approval and support from important others (parents, peers, teachers), which would help them to succeed socially and academically. In support of this notion (and in contrast to results in Western societies), shyness has been found to be positively associated with indices of social, emotional, and school adjustment (e.g., Chen, Rubin, & Sun, 1992). However, during the past two decades China has been experiencing large-scale economic reforms and dramatic societal changes. Certain behavioral characteristics, such as initiative and self-expression, would be more adaptive in urban areas to adjust this more competitive environment (Chen et al., 2005). Results from recent studies indicated that shyness in urban China is now associated with adjustment difficulties, including peer rejection, loneliness, and depression ( Chen et al., 2009, Chen et al., 2005, Liu et al., 2012 and Liu et al., 2014). 1.3. Shyness, coping style, and indices of adjustment Although substantial research has reported associations between shyness and socio-emotional difficulties, less is known about the conceptual mechanisms that may underlie these relations. One construct that has begun to receive attention in explaining the links between shyness and maladjustment is children’s coping style (e.g., Findlay et al., 2009, Kingsbury et al., 2013 and Markovic et al., 2013). Coping style refers to the typical pattern of responses one adopts when faced with a stressor (Causey & Dubow, 1992). Of particular interest for the present study were emotion-focused coping styles (e.g., worrying, getting mad), which are considered maladaptive and tend to be associated with greater behavior problems and lower social competence (e.g., Compas et al., 2001 and Endler and Parker, 1990). Results from studies in Western samples indicate that shy children are more likely to use emotion-focused coping styles in response to social stressors (Eisenberg et al., 1998, Jackon and Ebnet, 2006 and Markovic et al., 2013). Moreover, there is some recent evidence to suggest that emotion-focused coping also appears to act as a mediator of the relations between shyness and adjustment outcomes ( Kingsbury et al., 2013). For example, Findlay et al. (2009) reported that emotion-focused coping partially mediated relations between shyness and indices of internalizing problems (e.g., social anxiety, loneliness). However, to date the mediated pathway from shyness, to emotion-focused coping, to socio-emotional functioning has not been examined among Chinese children. 1.4. The present study Previous studies of shyness in Chinese children have all relied upon peer-nominated assessments. Although peer reports offer many advantages, the internal emotional and motivational processes that underlie shyness may be best assessed using self-report measures, particularly with older children (Liu et al., 2014). With this in mind, we sought to validate a Chinese version of the Children Shyness Questionnaire (CSQ, Crozier, 1995), a psychometrically sound and well-validated self-report measure of childhood shyness used often in Western cultures (e.g., Arbeau et al., 2012, Coplan et al., 2013 and Kingsbury et al., 2013). Nevertheless, the psychometric properties of this measure have not been examined in Chinese culture. Given the rapid process of modernization changed the adaptive function of shyness in urban China ( Chen et al., 2005), we expected self-reported shyness to be associated with indices of children’s socio-emotional difficulties.