Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Linking Temperamental Shyness and Social Anxiety in Childhood and Adolescence: Moderating Influences of Sex and Age

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Child Psychiatry & Human Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Although childhood shyness has been linked to social anxiety problems, the factors playing a role in this association have gone largely unexplored. Here we examined the potential moderating roles of sex and age on this relation in a sample of 119 (75 girls) children (10–12 years) and adolescents (14–16 years). As predicted, shyness was positively associated with social anxiety symptoms. Sex, but not age, served as a moderating factor in linking shyness and social anxiety. Specifically, shyness was more strongly associated with social anxiety symptoms among girls than boys. These results suggest the importance of considering sex differences when examining the relation between shyness and social anxiety in childhood and adolescence.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Schmidt LA, Buss AH (2010) Understanding shyness: four questions and four decades of research. In: Rubin KR, Coplan RJ (eds) The development of shyness and social withdrawal. Guilford Publications, New York, pp 23–41

    Google Scholar 

  2. Rubin KH, Coplan RJ, Bowker JC (2009) Social withdrawal in childhood. Annu Rev Psychol 60:141–171

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Chronis-Tuscano A, Degnan KA, Pine DS, Perez-Edgar K, Henderson HA, Diaz Y et al (2009) Stable early maternal report of behavioral inhibition predicts lifetime social anxiety disorder in adolescence. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 48:928–935

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Hayward C, Killen JD, Kraemer HC, Taylor CB (1998) Linking self-reported childhood behavioral inhibition to adolescent social phobia. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 37:1308–1316

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Hirshfeld-Becker DR, Biederman J, Henin A, Faraone SV, Davis S, Harrington K et al (2007) Behavioral inhibition in preschool children at risk is a specific predictor of middle childhood social anxiety: a five-year follow-up. J Dev Behav Pediatr 28:225–233

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Stemberger RT, Turner SM, Beidel DC, Calhoun KS (1995) Social phobia: an analysis of possible developmental factors. J Abnorm Psychol 104:526–531

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Kagan J, Reznick JS, Snidman N (1988) Biological bases of childhood shyness. Science 240:167–171

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Hirshfeld DR, Rosenbaum JF, Biederman J, Bolduc EA, Faraone SV, Snidman N et al (1992) Stable behavioral inhibition and its association with anxiety disorder. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 31:103–111

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Prior M, Smart D, Sanson A, Oberklaid F (2000) Does shy-inhibited temperament in childhood lead to anxiety problems in adolescence? J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 39:461–468

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Henderson L, Zimbardo P (1993) Self-blame attributions in shys vs. non-shys in a high-school sample. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, Charleston, SC

  11. Beesdo K, Knappe S, Pine DS (2009) Anxiety and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: developmental issues and implications for DSM-V. Psychiatr Clin N Am 32:483–524

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Beidel DC, Turner SM (1999) The natural course of shyness and related syndromes. In: Schmidt LA, Schulkin JS (eds) Extreme fear, shyness, and social phobia: origins, biological mechanisms, and clinical outcomes. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 203–223

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Turner SM, Beidel DC (1989) Social phobia: clinical syndrome, diagnosis and comorbidity. Clin Psychol Rev 9:3–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Turner SM, Beidel DC, Townsley RM (1990) Social phobia: relationship to shyness. Behav Res Ther 28:497–505

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Tang A, Santesso DL, Segalowitz SJ, Schmidt LA (2016) Distinguishing shyness and sociability in children: an event-related potential study. J Exp Child Psychol 142:291–311

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Anderson JC, Williams S, McGee R, Silva PA (1987) DSM-III disorders in preadolescent children: prevalence in a large sample from the general population. Arch Gen Psychiatry 44:69–76

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Lewinsohn PM, Gotlib IH, Lewinsohn M, Seeley JR, Allen NB (1998) Gender differences in anxiety disorders and anxiety symptoms in adolescents. J Abnorm Psychol 107:109–117

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Pine DS, Cohen P, Gurley D, Brook J, Ma Y (1998) The risk for early-adulthood anxiety and depressive disorders in adolescents with anxiety and depressive disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry 55:56–64

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Wittchen HU, Nelson CB, Lachner G (1998) Prevalence of mental disorders and psychosocial impairments in adolescents and young adults. Psychol Med 28:109–126

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Theall-Honey LA, Schmidt LA (2006) Do temperamentally shy children process emotion differently than nonshy children? Behavioral, psychophysiological, and gender differences in reticent preschoolers. Dev Psychobiol 48:187–196

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Janson H, Mathiesen KS (2008) Temperament profiles from infancy to middle childhood: development and associations with behavior problems. Dev Psychol 44:1314–1328

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Schwartz CE, Snidman N, Kagan J (1999) Adolescent social anxiety as an outcome of inhibited temperament in childhood. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 38:1008–1015

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Hayward C, Wilson KA, Lagle K, Kraemer HC, Killen JD, Taylor CB (2008) The developmental psychopathology of social anxiety in adolescents. Depress Anxiety 25:200–206

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Chorpita BF, Yim L, Moffitt C, Umemoto LA, Francis SE (2000) Assessment of symptoms of DSM-IV anxiety and depression in children: a revised child anxiety and depression scale. Behav Res Ther 38:835–855

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Weems CF, Costa NM (2005) Developmental differences in the expression of childhood anxiety symptoms and fears. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 44:656–663

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Cartwright-Hatton S, McNicol K, Doubleday E (2006) Anxiety in a neglected population: prevalence of anxiety disorders in pre-adolescent children. Clin Psychol Rev 26:817–833

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Degnan KA, Fox NA (2007) Behavioral inhibition and anxiety disorders: multiple levels of a resilience process. Dev Psychopathol 19:729–746

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Pedlow R, Sanson A, Prior M, Oberklaid F (1993) Stability of maternally reported temperament from infancy to eight years. Dev Psychol 29:998–1007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Pine DS (2007) Research review: a neuroscience framework for pediatric anxiety disorders. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 48:631–648

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Buss AH, Plomin R (1984) Temperament: early developing personality traits. Erlbaum, Hillsdale

    Google Scholar 

  31. Rowe DC, Plomin R (1977) Temperament in early childhood. J Pers Assess 41:150–156

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Birmaher B, Brent DA, Chiappetta L, Bridge J, Monga S, Baugher M (1999) Psychometric properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): a replication study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 38:1230–1236

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Guyer AE, Lau JY, McClure-Tone EB, Parrish J, Shiffrin ND, Reynolds RC et al (2008) Amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex function during anticipated peer evaluation in pediatric social anxiety. Arch Gen Psychiatry 65:1303–1312

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Lahat A, Benson B, Pine DS, Fox NA, Ernst M (2016) Neural responses to reward in childhood: relations to early behavioral inhibition and social anxiety. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci

  35. Lahat A, Lamm C, Chronis-Tuscano A, Pine DS, Henderson HA, Fox NA (2014) Early behavioral inhibition and increased error monitoring predict later social phobia symptoms in childhood. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 53:447–455

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  36. Roy AK, Fudge JL, Kelly C, Perry JS, Daniele T, Carlisi C et al (2013) Intrinsic functional connectivity of amygdala-based networks in adolescent generalized anxiety disorder. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 52:290–299

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  37. Aiken LS, West SG (1991) Multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

  38. Howarth GZ, Guyer AE, Pérez-Edgar K (2013) Young children’s affective responses to acceptance and rejection from peers: a computer-based task sensitive to variation in temperamental shyness and gender. Soc Dev 22:146–162

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  39. Lahat A, Walker OL, Lamm C, Degnan KA, Henderson HA, Fox NA (2014) Cognitive conflict links behavioral inhibition and social problem solving during social exclusion in childhood. Infant Child Dev 23:273–282

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  40. Chavira DA, Stein MB, Malcarne VL (2002) Scrutinizing the relationship between shyness and social phobia. J Anxiety Disord 16:585–598

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Heiser NA, Turner SM, Beidel DC (2003) Shyness: relationship to social phobia and other psychiatric disorders. Behav Res Ther 41:209–221

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Nelson LJ, Lee CT, Duan XX (2015) Associations between shyness and internalizing and externalizing problems during emerging adulthood in China. Emerg Adulthood 3:364–367

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. American Psychiatric Association (2013) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Washington

    Book  Google Scholar 

  44. Rao PA, Beidel DC, Turner SM, Ammerman RT, Crosby LE, Sallee FR (2007) Social anxiety disorder in childhood and adolescence: descriptive psychopathology. Behav Res Ther 45:1181–1191

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. DeWit DJ, Chandler-Coutts M, Offord DR, King G, McDougall J, Specht J et al (2005) Gender differences in the effects of family adversity on the risk of onset of DSM-III-R social phobia. J Anxiety Disord 19:479–502

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Kessler RC, Foster CL, Saunders WB, Stang PE (1995) Social consequences of psychiatric disorders, I: educational attainment. Am J Psychiatry 152:1026–1032

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Merikangas KR, Avenevoli S, Acharyya S, Zhang H, Angst J (2002) The spectrum of social phobia in the Zurich cohort study of young adults. Biol Psychiatry 51:81–91

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Weems CF, Hammond-Laurence K, Silverman WK, Ginsburg GS (1998) Testing the utility of the anxiety sensitivity construct in children and adolescents referred for anxiety disorders. J Clin Child Psychol 27:69–77

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was based on the first author’s undergraduate honours thesis conducted under the direction of L.A.S. This research was funded by Lawson Foundation and Banting Post-Doctoral Fellowships awarded to A.L., and operating grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) awarded to L.A.S. The authors wish to thank Rachael Adcock, Raha Hassan, Lauren Poulin, Valerie Prowse, Anya Swain, Alva Tang, and Richard Xu for their help with data collection and data entry.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada

    Tiffany Y. L. Tsui, Ayelet Lahat & Louis A. Schmidt

Authors
  1. Tiffany Y. L. Tsui
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ayelet Lahat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Louis A. Schmidt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tiffany Y. L. Tsui.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tsui, T.Y.L., Lahat, A. & Schmidt, L.A. Linking Temperamental Shyness and Social Anxiety in Childhood and Adolescence: Moderating Influences of Sex and Age. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 48, 778–785 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-016-0702-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-016-0702-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation