Shyness, Child–Teacher Relationships, and Socio‐Emotional Adjustment in a Sample of Italian Preschool‐Aged Children

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the moderating role of child-teacher relationship quality (i.e., closeness, conflict, and dependence) in the association between children's shyness and indices of socio-emotional adjustment and maladjustment. The participants were Italian preschool children (63 boys; 66 girls) and two lead teachers per classroom (N = 7 classrooms). In each classroom, one teacher, randomly selected, evaluated the quality of the child-teacher relationship; the other evaluated children's social competence and maladjustment. Peer liking was measured using a sociometric procedure. Parents provided an assessment of their children's shyness. Shyness was positively related to teacher-reported rejection and internalizing problems whereas shyness was negatively associated with closeness and conflict with teachers. Moreover, closeness, conflict, and dependence in the child-teacher relationship moderated the links between children shyness and indices of preschool social competence and maladjustment. For example, among children with low levels of closeness, shyness was negatively associated with teacher-reported social competence and positively related to teacher-reported peer rejection. At very high levels of dependence, there was a negative relation between shyness and social competence. The findings suggest that a positive child-teacher relationship may be a protective factor in avoiding social maladjustment in Italian scuole d'infanzia, where most pupils remain with the same teacher for 3 years.

Relations of positive and negative expressivity and effortful control to kindergarteners’ student–teacher relationship, academic engagement, and externalizing problems at school

“…Moreover, children prone to negative emotion expressivity may encounter more challenges developing and maintaining higher quality relationships (Pianta, Cox, & Snow, 2007). Consistent with this idea, negative emotion has been associated with poorer relationships with teachers, particularly conflictual student-teacher relationships, and with lower student-teacher closeness in both preschool and elementary school (Ladd & Burgess, 1999; Sette, Baumgartner, & Schneider, 2014; Valiente, Swanson, & Lemery-Chalfant, 2012). Such findings are important because student-teacher relationships characterized by warmth/closeness and/or low conflict have been positively associated with children’s achievement, motivation, and academic readiness (Ladd, Birch & Buhs, 1999; Liew, Chen & Hughes, 2010).…”

“…Based on the bulk of prior findings and for conceptual reasons, we predicted that children’s negative emotion expressivity would positively predict both student-teacher conflict (Ladd & Burgess, 1999; Sette et al, 2014; Valiente et al, 2012) and externalizing behaviors (Diener & Kim, 2004; Eisenberget al, 1994) and negatively predict teacher-student closeness Ladd, Birch & Buhs, 1999; Liew, Chen & Hughes, 2010) and engagement (Linnenbrink, 2007; Pekrun, 2006). In contrast, positive expressivity and EC were expected to predict greater engagement (Pekrun et al, 2002, Valiente et al, 2012), and teacher-student closeness and less student-teacher conflict (Reschly et al, 2008), and fewer externalizing behaviors (Eisenberg et al, 2010, 2000; Kim et al, 2007).…”

Social Surrogacy and Adjustment: Exploring the Correlates of Having a “Social Helper” for Shy and Non-Shy Young Adolescents

“…This may lead them to excessively rely on their surrogates to help them socialize with others and cope with their anxieties in social situations (Arbeau et al, 2012). To the extent that social surrogates provide highly shy adolescents with such support, they may deprive shy youth of opportunities to learn ways to improve their social skills or manage their social anxieties on their own, similar to the harmful effects of overprotective parenting and dependent teacher-child relationships on social competence in shy children and adolescents (e.g., Rubin, Coplan, & Bowker, 2009;Sette, Baumgartner, & Schneider, 2014). By becoming overly dependent on surrogates for support in stressful social situations, highly shy adolescents may become doubtful about their ability to successfully and independently manage other challenging situations (e.g., school work).…”

Participant roles in preschool bullying: The impact of emotion regulation, social preference, and quality of the teacher–child relationship

“…Moreover, children experiencing a close relationship with the teacher in the kindergarten tended to participate in classroom activities cooperatively and to enjoy going to school one year later (Ladd & Burgess, ). Besides predicting positive outcomes, a well‐functioning relationship with the preschool teacher has been found to act mainly as a protective factor, by compensating for many risk conditions, such as shyness (Sette, Baumgartner, & Shneider, ), a difficult temperament (Swaim‐Griggs, Glover Gagnon, Huelsman, Kidder‐Ashley, & Ballard, ) and a pre‐existing insecure attachment relationship with the caregiver (Mitchell‐Copeland, Denham, & DeMulder, ). Conversely, a conflictual relationship with the teacher exacerbates behavioral misconduct among aggressive children (Ladd & Burgess, ).…”