Shyness and Socioemotional Functioning in Young Chinese Children: The Moderating Role of Receptive Vocabulary

ABSTRACT

The goal of this study was to explore links among shyness, receptive vocabulary, and indices of socioemotional functioning in a sample of young children in mainland urban China. In particular, we sought to examine the potential moderating role of receptive language in these relations. Participants were N = 360 young children (200 boys, 160 girls, M_age = 4.72 years, SD = 0.63) attending preschool/kindergartens in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Multisource assessments were employed, including maternal ratings (child shyness), standardized tests (receptive vocabulary), child self-reports collected during individual interviews (loneliness), teacher ratings (child internalizing problems), and peer nominations (peer liking). Results indicated that receptive vocabulary moderated (buffering effect) the relations between shyness and several indices of socioemotional functioning. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of language skills for early school adjustment of young shy Chinese children.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ There were no significant shyness × gender interaction effects.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by funding from the Humanity and Social Science Planning Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China [Grant No.15YJA880033] and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [Grant No. 2018M640412].