Developmental programming of shyness: A longitudinal, prospective study across four decades

Abstract

Although shyness is a ubiquitous phenomenon with early developmental origins, little research has examined the influence of prenatal exposures on the developmental trajectory of shyness. Here, we examined trajectories of shyness from childhood to adulthood in three groups (N = 254), with varying degrees of prenatal adversity as indicated by the number of stressful exposures: extremely low birth weight (ELBW; <1000 g) survivors prenatally exposed to exogenous corticosteroids (ELBW+S, n = 56); ELBW survivors not prenatally exposed to exogenous corticosteroids (ELBW+NS, n = 56); and normal birth weight (NBW, n = 142) controls. Multilevel modeling revealed that the ELBW+S individuals exhibited the highest levels of childhood shyness, which remained stable into adulthood. The ELBW+NS and NBW controls had comparably low levels of childhood shyness; however, the ELBW+NS individuals experienced patterns of increasing shyness, while NBW controls displayed decreases in shyness into adulthood. We speculate that individuals exposed to multiple prenatal stressors (i.e., ELBW+S) may be developmentally programmed to be more sensitive to detecting social threat, with one manifestation being early developing, stable shyness, while increasing shyness among ELBW+NS individuals may reflect a later developing shyness influenced by postnatal context. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the developmental origins and developmental course of human shyness from childhood through adulthood.

The Development of Shyness from Late Childhood to Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study of Mexican-Origin Youth

“…These inconsistencies may be due, in part, to differences in assessment methods, specifically the use of self-reports (e.g., Zohar et al, 2019) versus parent-reports (Brandes et al, 2020; Laceulle et al, 2012). Although empirical evidence is mixed, some theoretical considerations suggest that shyness should increase during the adolescent years, given normative increases in self-consciousness and social anxiety disorder, sensitivity to social rejection, and the importance of peer and romantic relationships (Andrews et al, 2021; Cheek et al, 1986; Hassan et al, 2021; Poole et al, 2020; Tang et al, 2017; Wright et al, 2020), as well as the many puberty-related hormonal and socioemotional changes that might heighten distress in social interactions.…”

The development of shyness from late childhood to adolescence: A longitudinal study of Mexican-origin youth

“…These inconsistencies may be due, in part, to differences in assessment methods, specifically the use of self-reports (e.g., Zohar et al, 2019) versus parent-reports (Brandes et al, 2020;Laceulle et al, 2012). Although empirical evidence is mixed, some theoretical considerations suggest that shyness should increase during the adolescent years, given normative increases in self-consciousness and social anxiety disorder, sensitivity to social rejection, and the importance of peer and romantic relationships (Andrews et al, 2021;Cheek et al, 1986;Hassan et al, 2021;Poole et al, 2020;Tang et al, 2017;Wright et al, 2020), as well as the many puberty-related hormonal and socioemotional changes that might heighten distress in social interactions.…”