The purpose of the study was to examine how behavioural inhibition was associated with shyness and social competence and how maternal parenting moderated the associations in urban Chinese children. Participants were 2-year-old toddlers (N = 286, 143 boys and 143 girls) and their mothers in P. R. China. Data on behavioural inhibition were collected from laboratory observations. Mothers completed measures of parenting and child shyness and competence. It was found that behavioural inhibition was positively associated with shyness and negatively associated with social competence for children with low maternal support, but not for children with high maternal support, suggesting that maternal support might serve as a protective factor that buffered against the maladaptive development of inhibited children. The results indicate the functional meaning of early childhood inhibition and the role of parenting in today's urban China.

This study examined how interactions with familiar and unfamiliar peers were associated with social, school, and psychological adjustment in Chinese children. A sample of children ( N = 256, 104 boys and 152 girls, M age = 11 years, ranging from 9 to 13 years) engaged in free play sessions in quartets consisting of 2 pairs of familiar children. Information on the relative proportion of time spent interacting with familiar, unfamiliar, and mixed peers was obtained from videotaped observations. Data on social (e.g., leadership, victimization), school (e.g., school competence, learning problems), and psychological (e.g., perceived self-worth, depression) adjustment were collected from multiple sources including teacher ratings, self-reports, and school records. The results showed that interaction with familiar peers was positively associated with social and school competence and negatively associated with social, behavioral, and learning problems. Interaction with mixed familiar and unfamiliar peers was positively associated with indexes of psychological adjustment and negatively associated with psychological problems. In addition, interaction with unfamiliar peers was infrequent and not associated with adjustment or problems. The results indicate that social interactions with different types of peers may reflect different aspects of competence among Chinese children.

As one of the fundamental individual characteristics, behavioral inhibition in early childhood has considerable implications for the development of social, cognitive, and psychological adjustment. The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and behavioral inhibition in Chinese children using a cross-sectional design. A sample of 263 2-year-old children (134 boys and 129 girls of Han ethnicity; ages ranging from 24 to 26 months) in China participated in the study. Behavioral inhibition was assessed through laboratory observations, and genomic DNA was collected with buccal swabs. The results of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that the homozygous short 5-HTTLPR allele was associated with lower levels of behavioral inhibition, which was different from most of the findings based on individuals in Western countries. The results suggest that social and cultural factors may be involved in shaping links between the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and children's specific behaviors.

No abstract

No abstract