Treating childhood shyness and related behavior: empirically evaluated approaches to promote positive social interactions

The SocialVidStim: a video database of positive and negative social evaluation stimuli for use in social cognitive neuroscience paradigms

This paper describes the SocialVidStim-a database of video stimuli available to the scientific community depicting positive and negative social evaluative and neutral statements. The SocialVidStim comprises 53 diverse individuals reflecting the demographic makeup of the USA, ranging from 9 to 41 years old, saying 20-60 positive and 20-60 negative social evaluative statements (e.g. 'You are a very trustworthy/annoying person'), and 20-60 neutral statements (e.g. 'The sky is blue'), totaling 5793 videos post-production. The SocialVidStim are designed for use in behavioral and functional magetic resonance imaging paradigms, across developmental stages, in diverse populations. This study describes stimuli development and reports initial validity and reliability data on a subset videos (N = 1890) depicting individuals aged 18-41 years. Raters perceive videos as expected: positive videos elicit positively valenced ratings, negative videos elicit negatively valenced ratings and neutral videos are rated as neutral. Test-retest reliability data demonstrate intraclass correlations in the good-to-excellent range for negative and positive videos and the moderate range for neutral videos. We also report small effects on valence and arousal that should be considered during stimuli selection, including match between rater and actor sex and actor believability. The SocialVidStim is a resource for researchers and we offer suggestions for using the SocialVidStim in future research.

Social skills in neurodevelopmental disorders: a study using role-plays to assess adolescents and young adults with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and autism spectrum disorders

BACKGROUNDS

Social skills are frequently impaired in neurodevelopmental disorders and genetic conditions, including 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Although often assessed with questionnaires, direct assessment provides a more valid estimate of the constructs. Role-plays (i.e., simulates situational settings) therefore appear to be an appropriate indicator of social skills in daily life.

METHODS

This co-registered study involved 53 individuals with 22q11DS, 34 individuals with ASD, and 64 typically developing (TD) peers aged 12-30 years. All participants were assessed with role-plays as well as parent-reported questionnaires and clinical interviews focusing on social skills, functioning and anxiety.

RESULTS

Both clinical groups showed impaired social skills compared to TD, but distinct social profiles emerged between the groups. Individuals with 22q11DS displayed higher social appropriateness and clarity of speech but weaker general argumentation and negotiation skills, with the opposite pattern observed in participants with ASD. No association was found between social skills measured by direct observation and caregiver reports. Social anxiety, although higher in clinical groups than in TD, was not associated with role-plays.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights the need to train social skills through tailored interventions to target the specific difficulties of each clinical population. It also highlights the importance of combining measures as they do not necessarily provide the same outcome.

The Role of Social Skills in Predicting Treatment-Recovery in Children with a Social Anxiety Disorder

The current study investigated the role of social skills and its interaction with social anxiety as predictors of treatment outcome in children with an anxiety disorder either with or without a social anxiety disorder (SoAD). In total, 133 children (aged 8 to 13) with an anxiety disorder received a 10-session cognitive behavioral treatment (FRIENDS program). Pre- to post treatment Reliable Change (RC) and Treatment-Recovery (TR) were assessed from a multi-informant perspective, by including diagnostic information (ADIS C/P), child-reported anxiety symptoms (MASC) and parent-reported internalizing symptoms (CBCL-Int). Social skills were assessed with the parent-rated Social Skills Rating System (assertion, self-control, responsibility). Results showed that 1) parents of children with a SoAD reported significantly less favorable use of assertive and responsible social behavior in their children pre-treatment than parents of children without SoAD, 2) children with higher social skills had a better treatment recovery, and 3) children with anxiety and higher responsible behavior pre-treatment and without a SoAD had a better treatment recovery, but this effect did not show for children with SoAD. In conclusion, better use of social behavior increased the likelihood of treatment recovery but not of reliable change. Further studies on the role of social skills in the treatment of childhood (social) anxiety are needed to investigate the mechanisms by which social skills impact treatment outcome.

Sixth-year follow-up of the effects of recreational activities found to eliminate the symptoms of social phobia and shyness

BACKGROUND

The lack of 6-year follow-up studies that test the effect of recreational activities in the recovery of social phobia and shyness symptoms is the reason to conduct this study.

AIM

The purpose is to follow the effect of the 12-week recreational activity program found to eliminate social phobia and shyness symptoms after the completion of university studies in its sixth year.

METHODS

At the end of the 12-week recreational activity program that treats the symptoms of social phobia and shyness in university prep school students, 83 students who participated in the posttest both from intervention and control groups were invited to the study. In the sixth-year follow-up study, a total of 51 voluntary students - 32 from the intervention group and 19 from the control group - were administered the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, the Shyness Scale and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory.

RESULTS

When the pretests and the sixth-year scores are compared, it is seen that it still has an improving effect on social phobia and shyness; when the posttests and the sixth-year tests are compared, no difference is seen regarding social phobia whereas it is seen that recovery still continues regarding the symptoms of shyness, and a decrease is seen in self-esteem.

DISCUSSION

While the improving effect of recreational activities on shyness and social phobia symptoms still continues, their effect on self-esteem decreases.

CONCLUSION

It is suggested that recreational activities should be included in the programs at universities regarding personal and professional development, and the reasons for the decrease in self-esteem scores should be determined through more detailed studies.

Supporting Shy Students in the Classroom

Abstract. The current era is characterized by rapid changes, multiple transitions, an emphasis on communication skills, and the frequent need to adapt to new social frameworks. Consequently, in recent years, there has been a rise in awareness regarding the consequences of shyness, a phenomenon that dictates various aspects of a person’s life, for example, career choices and forming relationships. Research in this field indicates the necessity of supporting shy individuals from an early age in order to assist them expand the scope of their social experiences and realize their personal potential. This review sums up the theory and the research of support for shy pupils in the school framework. There are two parts to the article. The first reviews the nature of shyness, including its impact on the lives of children, adolescents, and adults, and risk and protective factors. The second part focuses on support of shy pupils in educational frameworks, including teachers’ outlooks on the subject, supportive strategies, and a proposal for how to present the subject to teachers. The last part describes directions for further research.

Social surrogacy and adjustment: exploring the correlates of having a "social helper" for shy and non-shy young adolescents

A social surrogate is an individual who offers help and comfort in social situations or makes social events more exciting. In this study of 157 young adolescents (55% female; Mage = 13.84 years, SD = 0.75 years), the authors examined whether the linear and curvilinear associations between self-reported social surrogate use and adjustment outcomes (social problems, loneliness, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms) varied as a function of shyness and gender, after accounting for the effects of positive friendship quality. Regression analyses revealed that low and high levels of social surrogate use were related to greater social problems for all adolescents. In addition, shyness emerged as a moderator for several curvilinear effects. Specifically, results indicated that (a) high levels of social surrogate use were associated with greater anxiety for adolescents high in shyness; and (b) low levels of social surrogate use were associated with greater depressive symptoms for adolescents low in shyness. Findings highlight the developmental importance of specific types of relationship experiences during early adolescence and point to different implications of social surrogate use for shy and non-shy young adolescents.

Prospective evaluation of the pyramid plus psychosocial intervention for shy withdrawn children: an assessment of efficacy in 7- to 8-year-old school children in Northern Ireland

BACKGROUND

Social withdrawal is known to precede and contribute to the development of internalization problems in shy children. This study examined the efficacy of a selective primary school-based psychosocial intervention for withdrawn children.

METHOD

The sample comprised 82 Primary 4 children aged between 7 and 8 years from 7 schools across Northern Ireland. There were 31 children in the comparison group (50.6% male) and 57 children received the intervention (41.7% male). A 2 × 2 mixed-model design was used: group (intervention group vs. comparison group) × 3 time points (pre- vs. 10 postintervention vs. 12-week follow-up) with repeated measures on the time factor. Teachers completed the SDQ at the three time points to assess participants' socio-emotional health status.

RESULTS

Pyramid participants showed greater reductions than the comparison group on the Emotional Symptom and Peer Problem factors following the intervention and their scores did not return to baseline levels at follow-up. Pyramid attendance accounted for approximately 12% and 9% of the variance in the Emotional Symptom and Peer Problems decreases respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Pyramid Plus helped to alleviate internalization problems in participants and initially had a positive impact on social re-integration. The incorporation of cognitive restructuring techniques may be a necessary intervention modification to affect participants' emotion regulation strategies.

Adolescent loneliness and psychiatric morbidity in Northern Ireland

OBJECTIVE

Previous research has identified an association between loneliness and psychiatric morbidity, but many of the studies have been based on small convenience samples and have not always used standardized measures.

AIMS AND METHODS

This study aimed to assess the association between standardized measures of loneliness and psychiatric morbidity using data from a large sample of adolescents from Northern Ireland (Young Life and Times Survey, 2011). A total of 1,434 participants completed the survey.

RESULTS

The prevalence of loneliness and psychiatric morbidity was 15.6% and 28.4% respectively. A multivariate binary logistic regression was used to identify the significant correlates of psychiatric morbidity. Demographic and loneliness variables were entered as covariates and female gender and perceptions of familial poverty were significantly associated with GHQ caseness. Loneliness increased the likelihood of GHQ caseness by more than five times.

CONCLUSIONS

Adolescent loneliness is significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity for Northern Irish adolescents. School-based screening and interventions to reduce loneliness may reduce the prevalence of loneliness.

Preventive child health care findings on early childhood predict peer-group social status in early adolescence

PURPOSE

A disputed social status among peers puts children and adolescents at risk for developing a wide range of problems, such as being bullied. However, there is a lack of knowledge about which early predictors could be used to identify (young) adolescents at risk for a disputed social status. The aim of this study was to assess whether preventive child health care (PCH) findings on early childhood predict neglected and rejected status in early adolescence in a large longitudinal community-based sample.

METHODS

Data came from 898 participants who participated in TRAILS, a longitudinal study. Information on early childhood factors was extracted from the charts of routine PCH visits registered between infancy and age of 4 years. To assess social status, peer nominations were used at age of 10-12 years.

RESULTS

Multinomial logistic regression showed that children who had a low birth weight, motor problems, and sleep problems; children of parents with a low educational level (odds ratios [ORs] between 1.71 and 2.90); and those with fewer attention hyperactivity problems (ORs = .43) were more likely to have a neglected status in early adolescence. Boys, children of parents with a low educational level, and children with early externalizing problems were more likely to have a rejected status in early adolescence (ORs between 1.69 and 2.56).

CONCLUSIONS

PCH findings on early childhood-on motor and social development-are predictive of a neglected and a rejected status in early adolescence. PCH is a good setting to monitor risk factors that predict the social status of young adolescents.

Moderating effects of aggression on the associations between social withdrawal subtypes and peer difficulties during early adolescence

Recent research has revealed significant heterogeneity in the peer difficulties associated with social withdrawal subtypes during early adolescence, but little is known about possible sources of that heterogeneity. This study of 194 Indian young adolescents (48% female; 90% Hindu; M age= 13.35 years) evaluated whether the peer adversity related to self-reported social withdrawal subtypes (shyness, unsociability, avoidance) varied as a function of peer-nominated overt and relational aggression, and gender. Regression analyses revealed that overt aggression and gender moderated the pathways between shyness and peer exclusion and peer victimization such that the associations were significant and positive only for boys who were high and girls who were low in overt aggression. Several additional moderator effects were found, including results revealing that relational aggression (in certain cases, in conjunction with gender) moderated the association between: (1) avoidance and peer exclusion and peer rejection, (2) shyness and peer rejection, and (3) unsociability and peer victimization. For adolescents who were average and low in relational aggression, avoidance was positively related to peer rejection, and unsociability was positively related to peer victimization. However, only for boys who were high in relational aggression, avoidance was found to be positively related to peer exclusion, and shyness was positively related to peer rejection. The findings highlight the importance of considering additional individual risk factors in studies of social withdrawal subtypes and point to important differences for young adolescent withdrawn boys and girls.

Social withdrawal in childhood

Socially withdrawn children frequently refrain from social activities in the presence of peers. The lack of social interaction in childhood may result from a variety of causes, including social fear and anxiety or a preference for solitude. From early childhood through to adolescence, socially withdrawn children are concurrently and predictively at risk for a wide range of negative adjustment outcomes, including socio-emotional difficulties (e.g., anxiety, low self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and internalizing problems), peer difficulties (e.g., rejection, victimization, poor friendship quality), and school difficulties (e.g., poor-quality teacher-child relationships, academic difficulties, school avoidance). The goals of the current review are to (a) provide some definitional, theoretical, and methodological clarity to the complex array of terms and constructs previously employed in the study of social withdrawal; (b) examine the predictors, correlates, and consequences of child and early-adolescent social withdrawal; and (c) present a developmental framework describing pathways to and from social withdrawal in childhood.

Shyness and informal help-seeking behavior

The present study examined whether shy individuals are more reluctant to seek help than less shy individuals. A sample of 48 undergraduates (46% men, Mage=20.6 yr.) were selected from a pool of 72 students based on their relatively high or low scores on the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale. They were then exposed to a situation involving an impossible task, on which they had the option of seeking assistance. Analysis indicated that participants scoring high on Shyness took significantly more time to seek help than participants scoring low. This result suggests that even when help is readily available, shy individuals may refrain from seeking it. Presumably, shy people may be reluctant to seek help because that often requires them to initiate a social interaction.

Behavioral Inhibition: Linking Biology and Behavior within a Developmental Framework

Behavioral inhibition refers to a temperament or style of reacting that some infants and young children exhibit when confronted with novel situations or unfamiliar adults or peers. Research on behavioral inhibition has examined the link between this set of behaviors to the neural systems involved in the experience and expression of fear. There are strong parallels between the physiology of behaviorally inhibited children and the activation of physiological systems associated with conditioned and unconditioned fear. Research has examined which caregiving behaviors support the frequency of behavioral inhibition across development, and work on the interface of cognitive processes and behavioral inhibition reveal both how certain cognitive processes moderate behavioral inhibition and how this temperament affects the development of cognition. This research has taken place within a context of the possibility that stable behavioral inhibition may be a risk factor for psychopathology, particularly anxiety disorders in older children. The current chapter reviews these areas of research and provides an integrative account of the broad impact of behavioral inhibition research.

Moderators of the relation between popularity and depressive symptoms in children: processing strength and friendship value

Children with low (n = 25) and high (n = 38) peer-rated popularity completed an emotional Stroop task, using negative social words, a self-report measure of friendship value relative to other domains of competence, and the Child Depression Inventory (CDI). Six months later, they completed the CDI again. In regression analyses, after controlling for prior CDI scores, social status interacted significantly with both Stroop and value measures (separate regressions). For unpopular children, both greater friendship valuing and greater negative social word Stroop interference predicted increases in depressive symptoms. In contrast, neither predictor was significant for popular children. In a third regression that included friendship value and Stroop interference as joint predictors of depression change, their effects remained significant and independent. We discuss these findings' implications for 3 models of depression; Champion and Power's social-cognitive theory of depression (L. A. Champion and M. J. Power, 1995), Pyszczynski and Greenberg's self-regulatory perseveration theory of depression (T. Pyszczynski & J. Greenberg, 1992), and Harter's model of global self-worth (S. Harter, 1985).