Someone to Lean on: Assessment and Implications of Social Surrogate Use in Childhood

Shyness and Psychological Maladjustment in Chinese Adolescents: Selection and Influence Processes in Friendship Networks

Few studies have been conducted to examine the role shyness plays in friendship selection and influences processes, particularly how befriending shy peers affects individual's psychological adjustment. To address these gaps, this study investigated the selection, de-selection, same behavior influence effects of shyness in the friendship network in Chinese adolescents using the longitudinal social network analysis. It also explored the possible pathways that transmit indirect influences of friends' shyness to individual's psychological maladjustments (i.e., loneliness and depressive symptoms). A sample of adolescents (N = 1254, 48.4% girls, M_age = 13.20 years at Time 1) were followed for three years in middle schools. The results showed that adolescents tended to befriend those who had similar shyness level during T1-T2 interval, but the friendships between shy friends were more likely to terminate during T2-T3 interval. Moreover, adolescents were found to become more similar with their friends in shyness over time. The study also found that friends' shyness at T1 would influence individual's loneliness at T3 via 1) increasing friends' loneliness at T2 or 2) increasing individual's shyness level at T2. Those two pathways, however, were not found for depressive symptoms. These findings indicate that shyness plays an important role in the friendship formation and dissolution and befriending shy peers may have implications for adolescents' development of shyness and loneliness.

Social Withdrawal and Social Surrogacy in Emerging Adulthood

Shyness has been well established as a hindrance to social adjustment and may be problematic for emerging adults attending university, given the high social expectations placed upon students. Previous studies suggest emerging adults high in shyness recruit their friends to act as social surrogates in order to help reduce the stress of entering social interactions; yet, whether other less studied forms of social withdrawal (i.e., avoidance, unsociability) are associated with social surrogacy remains uninvestigated. The goal of the present study was to examine differences between subtypes of withdrawal as related to social surrogacy, while considering the roles of social anxiety and social self-efficacy. Participants were 961 emerging adults (76% female; 67% Caucasian) between the ages of 18 and 25 (M = 20.15, SD = 1.71). The results indicated that patterns of social surrogacy varied between withdrawal subtypes, such that social surrogacy was positively related to shyness, and negatively related to unsociability, whereas avoidance yielded mixed results. The findings highlight the importance of considering withdrawal motivations in understanding social surrogacy.

Social Anxiety and Social Surrogacy in College Roommate Relationships

The social surrogate hypothesis proposes that people with higher social anxiety (HSA) recruit others to accompany them into social situations. We tested this hypothesis with college roommates using both hypothetical (Study 1) and retrospective (Study 2) measures, while assessing roommate's perceptions of recruitment and how social surrogacy might influence liking between roommates. Across two studies, we found that HSA participants were less likely to enter social situations alone (i.e. higher conditional entry); however, HSA was related to recruitment only when participants considered hypothetical scenarios, not when recruitment was assessed globally or retrospectively. There was little evidence that HSA participants’ roommates were aware of these behaviours, although there was preliminary evidence that less social anxiety might increase liking when roommates perceived more conditional entry. We also found preliminary evidence that social anxiety may be negatively related to liking when participants were less likely to recruit an alternate surrogate if their roommate was unavailable. Taken together, these preliminary findings emphasize the importance of studying the surrogacy process from an interpersonal/dyadic perspective and using methods that will differentiate between anticipated (which may be assessed by hypothetical scenarios) and enacted recruitment behaviours. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

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.