The social behaviours of inhibited children in and out of preschool

Shyness, Sport Engagement, and Internalizing Problems in Chinese Children: The Moderating Role of Class Sport Participation in a Multi-Level Model

The relations between shyness and internalizing problems have been mainly explored at the individual level, with little known about its dynamics at the group level. This study aims to examine the mediating effect of individual-level sport engagement and the moderating effect of class-level sport participation in the relations between shyness and internalizing problems. The participants were 951 children attending primary and middle school from grade 3 to grade 7 (Mage = 11 years, 509 boys) in urban areas of China. Cross-sectional data were collected using self-report assessments. Multi-level analysis indicated that (1) shyness was positively associated with internalizing problems; (2) sport engagement partially mediated the relations between shyness and internalizing problems; and (3) class sport participation was a cross-level moderator in the mediating relations between shyness, sport engagement, and internalizing problems. Shy children in classes with a higher level of sport participation tend to have less sport engagement and more internalizing problems than those in classes with a lower level of sport participation. These findings illuminate implications from a multi-level perspective for shy children's adjustment in a Chinese context. The well-being of shy children could be improved by intervening in sport activity, addressing both individual engagement and group dynamics, such as class participation.

The paradox of social avoidance and the yearning for understanding: Elevated interbrain synchrony among socially avoidant individuals during expression of negative emotions

Social avoidance refers to the tendency to be alone and non-participating to social interactions, which is considered to hamper health interpersonal relationship. However, the neural underpinnings of social and emotional interactions among social avoidant individuals have not been fully studied. In the present study, we used EEG hyperscanning technology to investigate the brain activity and its synchronization of 25 socially avoidant dyads and 28 comparison dyads during an emotional communication task. The emotional communication task consisted of the emotional processing stage and emotional interaction stage. Event-related potentials (ERPs) of the senders during the emotional processing stage and the interbrain synchrony (IBS) of the dyads during the emotional interaction stage were analyzed. Results showed that (1) socially avoidant group showed higher beta, theta and gamma IBS in the negative condition than in the positive and neutral condition; (2) in positive condition, the N1 and LPP amplitudes during the emotional processing stage of socially avoidant individuals were negatively correlated with the IBS within dyads during the emotional communication stage. The findings suggest that the dysfunctional emotional interaction of social avoidant individuals may be attributed to the negative impact of emotional stimuli processing during emotional communication.

Comparison of Global and Daily Ratings of Associations between Anxiety and Depressive Behaviors and Impairment in Preschool-Aged Children

Anxiety and depressive difficulties can emerge during early childhood and cause impairment in functioning. Anxiety and depressive behaviors and impairment are typically assessed with global questionnaires that require recall of children's behavior over an extended period which could reduce the accuracy of parent report of children's behavior and functioning. The current study compared parents' report of children's anxiety and depressive behaviors and impairment when evaluated with global measures versus a daily diary measure. Participants (N = 901 parents of 3-5-year-old children) completed global and daily measures of children's behavior and impairment during enrollment to the study. Global measures were completed at baseline and the 14 daily diary measures were completed consecutively for two weeks. Across most measures, daily associations between parent-reported anxiety and depressive behaviors and impairment were stronger compared to associations with global measures. These results suggest that daily measures may better capture links between young children's typical behavior and functioning compared to global measures. In addition, daily assessment might be more effective for measuring mild to moderate yet still impairing behaviors that may be missed on global reports that require longer periods of recall.

Developmental patterns of children's shyness: Relations with physiological, emotional, and regulatory responses to being treated unfairly

The dysregulation of social fear has been widely studied in children's shyness, but we know little about how shy children regulate during unfair treatment. We first characterized developmental patterns of children's shyness (N = 304, ngirls  = 153; 74% White, 26% Other) across 2 (Mage  = 2.07), 3 (Mage  = 3.08), 4 (Mage  = 4.08), and 6 (Mage  = 6.58) years of age. Data collection occurred from 2007 to 2014. At age 6, the high stable group had higher cardiac vagal withdrawal and lower expressed sadness and approach-related regulatory strategy than the low stable group when being treated unfairly. Although shy children may be more physiologically impacted by being treated unfairly, they may mask their sadness to signal appeasement.

The role of early social play behaviors and language skills for shy children's later internalizing difficulties in school

Research has demonstrated links from early childhood shyness to socioemotional problems later in life. This longitudinal study explored the role of early social play behaviors and language skills in the associations between childhood shyness and later internalizing and language difficulties in school. Participants were N = 7,447 children (50.1% girls) from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Latent direct, indirect, and interaction path analyses were performed within a structural equation framework. Results showed that mother-rated childhood shyness from age 18 months to age five years was associated with mother-rated internalizing difficulties and language problems at age eight years. Lower levels of teacher-reported social play behaviors and poorer language skills in preschool increased the risk of later anxiety problems among shy children, whereas higher levels of language competencies and social play behaviors buffered against later anxiety problems. The study identifies some of the early risk and protective factors that may influence shy children's socio-emotional functioning and adjustment.

Moderating Effects of Teacher-Child Relationship on the Association Between Unsociability and Play Behaviors

The present study aimed to examine the moderating role of the quality of the relationship between children and their teachers (i.e., closeness and conflict), in children's unsociability and play behaviors (i.e., reticent behavior, social play). Participants were 211 three- to six-year-old children (M = 64.08 months, SD = 10.92, 94 girls, 117 boys). Mothers reported their unsociability; teachers reported teacher-child relationships and children's play behaviors. Results showed that close teacher-child relationships moderated the association between unsociability and social play in children (buffering effect). Teacher-child conflict exacerbated the relations between unsociability and reticent behavior. Findings show that teacher-child closeness is effective in revealing social play behaviors of unsociable children. Teachers can improve their relationship with unsociable children to provide nurturing social play behavior.

Social Avoidance and Social Adjustment: The Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation and Emotion Lability/Negativity Among Chinese Preschool Children

The present study explored the role of emotion regulation and emotion lability/negativity as a moderator in the relation between child social avoidance and social adjustment (i.e., interpersonal skills, asocial behavior, peer exclusion) in Chinese culture. Participants were N = 194 children (102 boys, 92 girls, M_age = 70.82 months, SD = 5.40) recruited from nine classrooms in two public kindergartens in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Multi-source assessments were employed with mothers rating children’s social avoidance and teachers rating children’s emotion regulation, emotion lability/negativity and social adjustment outcomes. The results indicated that the relations between social avoidance and social adjustment difficulties were more negative among children lower in emotion regulation, but not significant for children with higher emotion regulation. In contrast, the relations between social avoidance and social adjustment difficulties were more positive among children higher in emotion lability/negativity, but not significant for children with lower emotion lability/negativity. This study informs us about how emotion regulation and emotion lability/negativity are jointly associated with socially avoidant children’s development. As well, the findings highlight the importance of considering the meaning and implication of social avoidance in Chinese culture.

Temperamental Constellations and School Readiness: A MultiVariate Approach

This study uses canonical correlation analyses to explore the relationship between multiple predictors of school readiness (i.e., academic readiness, social readiness, and teacher-child relationship) and multiple temperamental traits using data from the second wave (age 54 months, n = 1226) of the longitudinal Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD; NICHD ECCRN 1993). This longitudinal study collected data on a large cohort of children and their families from birth through age 15. For academic readiness, only one temperamental constellation emerged, representing the construct of effortful control (i.e., high attentional focusing, high inhibitory control). For peer interactions, two significant constellations emerged: "dysregulated" (low inhibitory control, low shyness, and high activity), and "withdrawn" (high shyness, low inhibitory control, low attentional focusing). Finally, the analyses exploring child-teacher relationships revealed two significant constellations: "highly surgent" (high activity, low inhibitory control, low shyness) and "emotionally controlled" (low anger/frustration and high inhibitory control). Results of this study form a more nuanced exploration of relationships between temperamental traits and indicators of school readiness than can be found in the extant literature, and will provide the groundwork for future research to test specific hypotheses related to the effect temperamental constellations have on children's school readiness.

Trajectories of Observed Shyness and Psychosocial Adjustment in Children

Shyness can manifest as inhibition, fear, and avoidance in the context of social novelty and situations of perceived social evaluation. In the present study, 130 children (M_age = 7.6 years, SD = 1.8) participated in a videotaped self-presentation task across three separate visits spanning approximately 3 years in early and middle childhood. Children's observed shyness was best characterized by two trajectories, including a high-stable class (19%) and a low-stable class (81%). Girls were more likely than boys to follow a pattern of high-stable observed shyness. Further, children in the high-stable observed shyness class were rated by parents and teachers as more socially anxious relative to children in the low-stable class, and boys in the high-stable observed shyness class were rated by their teachers as displaying more depressive symptoms relative to girls. These findings suggest that a subset of children display stable behavioral shyness, and this is correlated with psychosocial functioning.

Positive and Negative Emotionality at Age 3 Predicts Change in Frontal EEG Asymmetry across Early Childhood

Depression is characterized by low positive emotionality (PE) and high negative emotionality (NE), as well as asymmetries in resting electroencephalography (EEG) alpha power. Moreover, frontal asymmetry has itself been linked to PE, NE, and related constructs. However, little is known about associations of temperamental PE and NE with resting EEG asymmetries in young children and whether this association changes as a function of development. In a longitudinal study of 254 three-year old children, we assessed PE and NE at age 3 using a standard laboratory observation procedure. Frontal EEG asymmetries were assessed at age 3 and three years later at age 6. We observed a significant three-way interaction of preschool PE and NE and age at assessment for asymmetry at F3-F4 electrode sites, such that children with both low PE and high NE developed a pattern of increasingly lower relative left-frontal cortical activity over time. In addition, F7-F8 asymmetry was predicted by a PE by time interaction, such that the frontal asymmetry in children with high PE virtually disappeared by age 6. Overall, these findings suggest that early temperament is associated with developmental changes in frontal asymmetry, and that the combination of low PE and high NE predicts the development of the pattern of frontal symmetry that is associated with depression.

Revisiting the double-edged sword of self-regulation: Linking shyness, attentional shifting, and social behavior in preschoolers

Although children's self-regulation has been conceptualized positively, there may be individual differences in self-regulatory processes, some of which might not be adaptive depending on temperamental factors. We examined whether individual differences in children's self-regulation (i.e., inhibitory control and attentional shifting) moderated the association between shyness and social behavior in multiple social contexts (N = 156 children, 74 girls; M_age = 4.06 years, SD = 0.78). Only in children with high attentional shifting was shyness associated with lower levels of social support seeking during a frustration task and with lower levels of social engagement during a stranger approach task. These results were not attributable to differences in baseline physiological arousal indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia. These findings suggest that for some shy children, high levels of self-regulation may be less adaptive, leading to rigidity or over-control in some social contexts, possibly hindering social interaction.

Generalization of an Early Intervention for Inhibited Preschoolers to the Classroom Setting

Considerable evidence has accumulated supporting transactional influences between early childhood behavioral inhibition (BI), parent-child and child-peer relationships, and the development of anxiety disorders in adolescence and adulthood. Drawing from this literature, the Turtle Program was designed to treat children high in BI by intervening at the level of both parents and peers. In this pilot study, we sought to determine whether benefits of participating in the Turtle Program extended to children's classrooms in the form of increased positive social interactions with peers. Forty inhibited children (42-60 months) and their parent(s) were randomized to either the Turtle Program (n = 18) or a waitlist control group (WLC; n = 22). The Turtle Program involved 8 weeks of concurrent parent and child treatment. Trained research assistants, blind to treatment condition, coded participants' social interactions with peers during free play at each child's preschool at the beginning and end of treatment. Teachers unaware of group assignment also provided reports of social behaviors at these time points. Reliable change index scores revealed that both Turtle Program and WLC participants experienced relatively high rates of reliable increases in observed peer play interactions from pre- to post-treatment (73.3% and 42.1% respectively). Additionally, Turtle Program participants experienced high rates of reliable increase in observed initiations to peers (73.3%) as well as a moderate degree of reliable decrease in teacher-reported displays of fear/anxiety (33.3%). These data provide preliminary, but promising, evidence that increases in children's social behaviors as a result of participation in the Turtle Program generalize to their preschool classrooms.

Neural correlates of attention bias to masked facial threat cues: Examining children at-risk for social anxiety disorder

Background

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is an early-appearing temperament trait and a robust predictor of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Both BI and anxiety may have distinct patterns of emotion processing marked by heightened neural responses to threat cues. BI and anxious children display similar frontolimbic patterns when completing an emotion-face attention bias task with supraliminal presentation. Anxious children also show a distinct neural response to the same task with subliminal face presentations, probing stimulus-driven attention networks. We do not have parallel data available for BI children, limiting our understanding of underlying affective mechanisms potentially linking early BI to the later emergence of anxiety.

Method

We examined the neural response to subliminal threat presentation during an emotion-face masked dot-probe task in children oversampled for BI (N = 67; 30 BI, 9–12 yrs).

Results

Non-BI children displayed greater activation versus BI children in several regions in response to threat faces versus neutral faces, including striatum, prefrontal and temporal lobes. When comparing congruent and incongruent trials, which require attention disengagement, BI children showed greater activation than non-BI children in the cerebellum, which is implicated in rapidly coordinating information processing, aversive conditioning, and learning the precise timing of anticipatory responses.

Conclusions

Non-BI children may more readily engage rapid coordinated frontolimbic circuitry to salient stimuli, whereas BI children may preferentially engage subcortical circuitry, in response to limbic “alarms” triggered by subliminal threat cues. These data help reveal the extent to which temperamental risk shares similar neurocircuitry previously documented in anxious adolescents and young adults in response to masked threat.

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All children displayed amygdala activation in response to brief threat cues.

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Non-BI children displayed activation in striatum, PFC and temporal lobes.

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BI children showed greater activation in the cerebellum.

Psychometric properties of the Child Anxiety Life Interference Scale - Preschool Version

Despite growing recognition of childhood anxiety as a common and often debilitating clinical concern, we have limited knowledge of the particular ways in which anxiety interferes with daily life for young children who have not yet entered formal schooling. The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Child Anxiety Life Interference Scale - Preschool Version (CALIS-PV). The CALIS-PV is a brief (18 item) parent-report measure of the impacts of a young child's anxiety on their own life and that of her or his parent. Participants were 784 parents of a child aged 3-7 years, who completed the CALIS-PV as a part of the follow-up assessment battery for two anxiety prevention trials targeted at preschool children with temperamental inhibition. Confirmatory factor analysis supported three CALIS-PV factors reflecting anxiety-related life interference at home, outside home and on parent life. The three factors showed good internal consistency and good convergent and divergent validity, and successfully differentiated children with and without an anxiety diagnosis. Findings provide initial support for the CALIS-PV as a reliable and valid measure of the daily life impacts of childhood anxiety for preschool-aged children and their parents.

Early social fear predicts kindergarteners' socially anxious behaviors: Direct associations, moderation by inhibitory control, and differences from nonsocial fear

Although social and nonsocial fear are discernable as early as preschool, little is known about their distinct associations with developmental outcomes. For example, fear has been identified as a predictor of social anxiety problems, but no work has examined whether social and nonsocial fear make independent contributions to risk. We investigated the extent to which early social and nonsocial fear were associated with socially anxious behaviors during kindergarten. To do this, we identified distinct trajectories of social and nonsocial fear across toddlerhood and preschool. Only social fear was associated with socially anxious behaviors at ages 2 and 5. Because the ability to regulate fear contributes to the degree to which fearful children are at risk for anxiety problems, we also tested whether an early developing aspect of self-regulation modulated associations between early fear and kindergarten socially anxious behaviors. Specifically, we tested whether inhibitory control differentially modulated associations between early levels of social and nonsocial fear and socially anxious behaviors during kindergarten. Associations between trajectories of early social fear and age 5 socially anxious behaviors were moderated by individual differences in inhibitory control. Consistent with previous research showing associations between overcontrol and anxiety symptoms, more negative outcomes were observed when stable, high levels of social fear across childhood were coupled with high levels of inhibitory control. Results suggest that the combination of social fear and overcontrol reflect a profile of early risk for the development of social inhibition and social anxiety problems. (PsycINFO Database Record

Childhood peer network characteristics: genetic influences and links with early mental health trajectories

BACKGROUND

Peer relationships are important for children's mental health, yet little is known of their etiological underpinnings. Here, we explore the genetic influences on childhood peer network characteristics in three different networks defined by rejection, acceptance, and prosocial behavior. We further examine the impact of early externalizing and internalizing trajectories on these same peer network characteristics.

METHODS

Participants were 1,288 children from the Dutch 'Generation R' birth cohort. At age 7, we mapped out children's classroom peer networks for peer rejection, acceptance, and prosocial behavior using mutual peer nominations. In each network, genetic influences were estimated for children's degree centrality, closeness centrality and link reciprocity from DNA using Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis. Preschool externalizing and internalizing trajectories were computed using parental ratings at ages 1.5, 3, and 5 years.

RESULTS

Of the three network properties examined, closeness centrality emerged as significantly heritable across all networks. Preschool externalizing problems predicted unfavorable positions within peer rejection networks and having fewer mutual friendships. In contrast, children with preschool-internalizing problems were not actively rejected by their peers, but were less well-connected within their social support network.

CONCLUSIONS

Our finding of significant heritability for closeness centrality should be taken as preliminary evidence that requires replication. Nevertheless, it can orient us to the role of genes in shaping a child's position within peer networks. Additionally, social network perspectives offer rich insights into how early life mental health trajectories impact a child's later functioning within peer networks.

The role of emotion knowledge in the links between shyness and children's socio-emotional functioning at preschool

The present study investigated the potential protective role of components of emotion knowledge (i.e., emotion recognition, situation knowledge) in the links between young children's shyness and indices of socio-emotional functioning. Participants were n = 163 children (82 boys and 81 girls) aged 23-77 months (M = 53.29, SD = 14.48), recruited from preschools in Italy. Parents provided ratings of child shyness and teachers rated children's socio-emotional functioning at preschool (i.e., social competence, anxiety-withdrawal, peer rejection). Children were also interviewed to assess their abilities to recognize facial emotional expressions and identify situations that affect emotions. Among the results, shyness was positively related to anxiety-withdrawal and peer rejection. In addition, emotion recognition was found to significantly moderate the links between shyness and preschool socio-emotional functioning, appearing to serve a buffering role. For example, at lower levels of emotion recognition, shyness was positively associated with both anxiety-withdrawal and rejection by peers, but at higher levels of emotion recognition, these associations were attenuated. Results are discussed in terms of the protective role of emotion recognition in promoting shy children's positive socio-emotional functioning within the classroom context.

Frontolimbic functioning during threat-related attention: Relations to early behavioral inhibition and anxiety in children

Children with behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperament characterized by biologically-based hyper-vigilance to novelty, display threat-related attention biases (AB) that shape developmental trajectories of risk for anxiety. Here we explore the relations between BI, neural function, and anxiety. Fifty-six 9-12-year-olds (23 behaviorally inhibited) performed the dot-probe task while undergoing fMRI. AB scores were not associated with BI group or parent-rated anxiety symptoms. Trials requiring attention orienting away from threat engaged an executive and threat-attention network (dlPFC, vlPFC, mPFC, and amygdala). Within that network, behaviorally inhibited children showed greater activation in the right dlPFC. Heightened dlPFC activation related to increased anxiety, and BI levels accounted for the direct relation between dlPFC activation and anxiety. Behaviorally inhibited children may engage the executive attention system during threat-related processing as a compensatory mechanism. We provide preliminary evidence that the link between PFC functioning and anxiety might be attributed to early-emerging temperamental vulnerabilities present before the emergence of clinical anxiety.

Social withdrawal in children moderates the association between parenting styles and the children's own socioemotional development

BACKGROUND

Social withdrawal in early childhood is a risk factor for later socioemotional difficulties. This study examined the joint effects of children's social withdrawal and mothers' and fathers' parenting styles on children's socioemotional development. Based on diatheses-stress, vantage sensitivity, and differential susceptibility models, socially withdrawn children were assumed to be more prone to parental influences than others.

METHODS

Teachers rated 314 children on prosocial skills, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors at three points in time between grades 1-3. Mothers (n = 279) and fathers (n = 182) filled in questionnaires measuring their affection, and their behavioral and psychological control at the same points in time. Teacher reports on children's level of social withdrawal were obtained at the end of kindergarten.

RESULTS

Panel analysis showed that particularly those children who showed signs of social withdrawal were vulnerable to the negative effects of low maternal affection in terms of externalizing behavior. Moreover, among these children, mothers' and fathers' psychological control predicted high levels of internalizing problem but, at the same time, mothers' psychological control predicted also a high level of prosocial behavior and low levels of externalizing problem.

CONCLUSIONS

The results supported the diathesis-stress model more than the differential susceptibility model. For example, socially withdrawn children were found to be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of low maternal affection. Although maternal psychological control had positive effects on the prosocial skills of socially withdrawn children, and reduced the amount of externalizing problems, it was at the same time associated with an increase in their internalizing problems. In this way, socially withdrawn children seem to be at risk of pleasing their mothers at the cost of their own well-being.

A prospective longitudinal study of shyness from infancy to adolescence: stability, age-related changes, and prediction of socio-emotional functioning

This longitudinal, population-based and prospective study investigated the stability, age-related changes, and socio-emotional outcomes of shyness from infancy to early adolescence. A sample of 921 children was followed from ages 1.5 to 12.5 years. Parent-reported shyness was assessed at five time points and maternal- and self-reported social skills and symptoms of anxiety and depression were assessed at age 12.5 years. Piecewise latent growth curve analysis was applied, with outcomes regressed on latent shyness intercept and slope factors. Results showed moderate stability and increasing levels of shyness across time, with more variance and a steeper increase in early as compared to mid-to-late childhood. Both stable shyness and increased shyness in mid-to-late (but not early) childhood predicted poorer social skills and higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms in early adolescence. The implications of the evidence for two developmental periods in shyness trajectories with differential impact on later socio-emotional functioning are discussed.

Shyness, teacher-child relationships, and socio-emotional adjustment in grade 1

The goal of the present study was to explore the moderating role of teacher—child relationships in the relation between shyness and socio-emotional adjustment in early elementary school. Participants were n = 169 grade 1 children (Mage = 76.93 mos, SD = 3.86). Shortly after the start of the school year (September), parents completed an assessment of their child’s shyness. In January/February teachers completed the Student—Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS; Pianta, 2001). At the end of the school year (May/June), child adjustment was assessed by both child and teacher reports. Among the results, shyness and negative teacher—child relationships (i.e., dependent, conflictual) were related to socio-emotional difficulties, whereas close teacher—child relationships were associated with indices of positive adjustment. However, several interaction effects were also observed, with teacher—child relationships moderating the relations between shyness and adjustment. The pattern of results suggested a potential protective role for teacher—child relationships in shy children’s adjustment. Results are discussed in terms of the contributions of teachers to young shy children’s school adjustment.