Early Shyness and School-Age Internalizing Symptoms: Mediation by Emotion Regulation

1. Early Shyness and School-Age Internalizing Symptoms: Mediation by Emotion Regulation Xin Feng1, Daniel S. Shaw2, and Kristin L. Moilanen3 1The Ohio State University, 2University of Pittsburgh, 3West Virginia University Introduction Results • Certain temperamental characteristics may predispose children to experience emotional problems. Shy temperament has been linked to adaptive difficulties such as internalizing problems (Rothbart & Bates, 1998). In addition, associations have been theorized between shyness and passive types of emotion regulation strategies (Calkins, 2003), strategies that have been theoretically linked to emotional problems (Chaplin & Cole, 2005). Further, parenting behavior, specifically in the use of control, has been found to moderate associations between child temperament and emotional problems. The present study examined: • direct relations between toddler shyness and school-age internalizing symptoms. • whether such associations were mediated by emotion regulation strategies • whether maternal control moderated associations between shyness and children’s emotion regulation strategies. • A significant indirect relation (B = .27 SE = .14, p < .05) was found between shyness and teacher report of internalizing symptoms, mediated through passive/dependent regulatory strategies Specifically, high levels of shyness were predictive of passive/dependent regulation, which in turn was predictive of high levels of teacher rating of internalizing symptoms (Figure 1). Figure 1 Method • Shyness was also negatively associated with active distraction, which in turn was negatively associated with parent report of internalizing symptoms, with a marginal indirect effect (mediated by active distraction), B = .21, SE = .11, p = .06 (Figure 2). • Participants • 217 boys and their mothers from low-income families. • 53% European American, 36% African American, 6% Hispanic American, and 5% biracial families • Measures • Internalizing symptomswere assessed using mothers’ and teachers’ reports on the Child Behavior Checklist between the ages of 6 and 7. • Shyness was assessed using maternal report on the shyness scale of the Toddler Behavior Checklist at age 1.5. • Emotion regulation strategies were assessed in a delay of gratification task administered at age 3.5. Observed behavior and emotion were reduced to two factors: 1) active distraction, purposefully shifting focus of attention away from the delay object to engage in other activities; and 2) passive/dependentstrategy, including passive waiting and physical comfort seeking with mothers. • Maternal negative control was derived from behavioral coding of mother-child interaction during a clean-up task at ages 1.5 and 2. Discussion Figure 2 Although no direct relationship was found between shyness and internalizing problems, our findings suggest that the relations between early shyness and school-age internalizing problems are likely to be mediated through children’s capacity to successfully regulate negative emotions. Shy children showed the tendencies to rely on passive/dependent strategies and to lack the active distraction in response to frustration, which were predictive of higher parent and teacher ratings of internalizing problems. The direction of interaction between shyness and maternal negative control was not entirely expected. It appears that shy children whose mothers were high in negative control showed more active distraction and fewer passive/dependent strategies than shy children with mothers low in negative control. One plausible explanation is that mothers high in negative control may likely to direct their shy children’s activities during the cookie task and, as a result, children may shift their attention away from the delay object to respond to mother-initiated interactions. • Shyness and maternal negative control interacted in predicting emotion regulation strategies. Shyness was negatively associated with active distraction only for children whose mothers were at low to average levels of negative control (β= -.44, p < .001, and β= -.23, p < .01, respectively; Figure 3). • Shyness was positively associated with passive/dependent strategy only for children whose mothers were at low to average levels of negative control (β= .44, p < .001, and β= 23, p = .001, respectively; Figure 4). This study is supported by a NIMH grant (MH56193) awarded to Daniel Shaw.