Shyness and Psychological Maladjustment in Chinese Adolescents: Selection and Influence Processes in Friendship Networks

Parental Psychological Control and Interpersonal Trust in Junior High School Students: Serial Mediating Roles of Shyness and Interpersonal Self-Support

Purpose

Long-term parental psychological control tends to cause adolescents to become oversensitive in interpersonal relationships, and there is a gap in the mechanism of action between parental psychological control and the interpersonal trust of junior high school students. This study intends to analyze the relationship between parental psychological control and interpersonal trust in middle school students and explore the sequential mediation role of shyness and interpersonal self-support.

Methods

Based on self-determination theory and object-relations theory, this study administered questionnaires to 542 Chinese junior high school students using the Psychological Control Scale, Interpersonal Trust Scale, Shyness Scale, and Interpersonal Self-support Scale. Afterwards, structural equation modelling was used for testing.

Results

The findings revealed that (1) parental psychological control significantly and negatively predicted interpersonal trust and that (2) shyness and interpersonal self-support sequentially mediated the association between parental psychological control and interpersonal trust.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that parental psychological control can not only directly influence the interpersonal trust of junior high school students but also indirectly act on interpersonal trust through shyness and interpersonal self-support. This study contributes to an in-depth understanding of the relationship between parental psychological control and the interpersonal trust of junior high school students, which is important for increasing the level of interpersonal trust of junior high school students.

A systematic review of longitudinal risk and protective factors for loneliness in youth

To effectively tackle loneliness in youth, prevention and intervention strategies should be based on solid evidence regarding risk and protective factors in this age group. This systematic literature review identifies and narratively synthesizes longitudinal studies of risk and protective factors for loneliness in children and adolescents aged below 25 years. A systematic literature search was conducted in October 2023 using PsycINFO and MEDLINE, resulting in n = 398 articles, with n = 105 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. The examined factors included demographic (e.g., gender), socioeconomic (e.g., income sufficiency), social (e.g., peer acceptance), mental health (e.g., depression), physical health (e.g., disabilities), health behavior (e.g., sport participation), and psychological factors (e.g., shyness). Additionally, adverse childhood experiences (e.g., child maltreatment) and environmental factors (e.g., neighborhood characteristics) were investigated. Despite the wide range of potential risk and protective factors examined, relatively few studies provided strong evidence for a prospective association with loneliness. Risk factors that were consistently identified across multiple longitudinal studies included low peer acceptance and peer victimization, depression, social anxiety, internalizing symptoms, low self-esteem, shyness, and neuroticism. Additional replication is required to evaluate factors that have shown significant associations with loneliness in only a limited number of longitudinal studies (e.g., aggression).

Parental conflict and adolescents' socially adverse emotions: the mediating role of family functioning

Objective

To examine the process of how parental conflict and family functioning influence adolescents' socially adverse emotions (shyness and loneliness).

Methods

Stratified cluster sampling was used to conduct a questionnaire survey among 1,100 junior high school students from three junior high schools in Beijing, Chongqing, and Shijiazhuang, China.

Results

(1) The overall experience of adolescents' socially adverse emotions was at the moderate level; boys' experience of shyness and loneliness was significantly higher than that of girls; the experience of shyness and loneliness in the second grade was significantly higher than that in the first grade; (2) Parental conflict was significantly negatively correlated with family functioning and significantly positively correlated with adolescents' socially adverse emotions, while family functioning was significantly negatively correlated with adolescents' socially adverse emotions; (3) Family functioning partially mediates the relationship between parental conflict and adolescents' shyness and completely mediates the relationship between parental conflict and adolescents' loneliness.

Conclusion

Compared to adolescents' shyness, family functioning plays a more important mediating role in the relationship between parental conflict and adolescents' loneliness.

Cultural Dimensions Moderate the Association between Loneliness and Mental Health during Adolescence and Younger Adulthood: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Cultural factors, such as country or continent, influence the relationship between loneliness and mental health. However, less is known about how cultural dimensions moderate this relationship during adolescence and younger adulthood, even if these dimensions manifest as country or continent differences. This study aims to examine the potential influence of Hofstede's cultural dimensions on this relationship using a three-level meta-analysis approach. A total of 292 studies with 291,946 participants aged 10 to 24 were included in this study. The results indicate that cultural dimensions, such as individualism vs. collectivism, indulgence vs. restraint, power distance, and long-term vs. short-term orientation, moderated the associations between loneliness and social anxiety, stress, Internet overuse, and negative affect. The association between loneliness and mental health was not moderated by cultural dimensions, such as masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. These findings suggest that culture's influence on the association between loneliness and mental health is based on a domain-specific mechanism.

Shyness, Sport Engagement, and Internalizing Problems in Chinese Children: The Moderating Role of Class Sport Participation in a Multi-Level Model

The relations between shyness and internalizing problems have been mainly explored at the individual level, with little known about its dynamics at the group level. This study aims to examine the mediating effect of individual-level sport engagement and the moderating effect of class-level sport participation in the relations between shyness and internalizing problems. The participants were 951 children attending primary and middle school from grade 3 to grade 7 (Mage = 11 years, 509 boys) in urban areas of China. Cross-sectional data were collected using self-report assessments. Multi-level analysis indicated that (1) shyness was positively associated with internalizing problems; (2) sport engagement partially mediated the relations between shyness and internalizing problems; and (3) class sport participation was a cross-level moderator in the mediating relations between shyness, sport engagement, and internalizing problems. Shy children in classes with a higher level of sport participation tend to have less sport engagement and more internalizing problems than those in classes with a lower level of sport participation. These findings illuminate implications from a multi-level perspective for shy children's adjustment in a Chinese context. The well-being of shy children could be improved by intervening in sport activity, addressing both individual engagement and group dynamics, such as class participation.

Shyness and self-consistency and congruence among Chinese adolescents: mediating role of social comparison orientation and moderating role of self-focused attention

During the critical period of personality shaping and self-development, adolescents face unique challenges and opportunities. This study, based on Cognitive-Behavioral Theory, explored the relationship between shyness and self-consistency and congruence (hereinafter referred to as SCC), as well as its underlying mechanisms. Through a questionnaire survey on shyness, social comparison orientation, self-focused attention, and SCC among 984 adolescents, the results revealed that (1) Adolescent shyness negatively predicted SCC. (2) Social comparison orientation partially mediated the relationship between shyness and SCC. (3) Self-focused attention moderated the direct pathway of this mediation process, where a high level of self-focused attention exacerbated the negative impact of shyness on SCC. These findings offered a new perspective on understanding SCC and underscored the importance of addressing the information processing mechanisms of social comparison orientation and self-focused attention among shy adolescents in interventions aimed at promoting their psychological harmony and healthy growth.

Aggression and Depression in Chinese Early Adolescents: Same-Domain and Cross-Domain Effects in Friendships

From late childhood, friendships as a distinct peer experience become increasingly salient in affecting individual development. This one-year longitudinal study examined same-domain and cross-domain effects of aggression and depression in friendships among early adolescents in China. Participants included 226 students (95 boys) within 113 friendship dyads initially in sixth grade (initial mean age = 12 years) in two public junior high schools. Data on aggression, depression, and friendship were collected from self-reports and peer nominations in 2017 and 2018. The results using the actor-partner interdependence model showed that friends' aggression positively predicted adolescents' later aggression and that friends' depression positively predicted adolescents' later depression, indicating same-domain contagion effects. In addition, friends' aggression positively predicted adolescents' later depression, indicating cross-domain cascading effects. The results suggest that adolescents with more aggressive friends are at risk for developing higher levels of social-behavioral and psychological problems with time. The results help understand the role of friendships in individual maladaptive development and are discussed in terms of the Chinese context.

The Relation of Motivation Factors for Online Games With Personality Disorders, Addiction, Shyness, and Loneliness in Kuwait

Drawing on the Self-Development Theory (SDT), this study examines the relation between the factors that motivate online gaming and the effects of addiction, shyness, and loneliness. We have modified the SDT theory by adding intrinsic and extrinsic factors to measure the degree of its effect on addiction in online gaming settings. Next, we develop a special instrument to measure gamers’ experience and their level of addiction. The sample is 671 online gamers who participated in an online survey. A confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modeling tests are conducted to identify reliable factors and the goodness of fit of the research model. The findings show that the effect of addiction on shyness and loneliness is minor. Furthermore, loneliness is affected mostly by anxiety of others. In addition, the challenge of meeting the goals of gaming has the greatest effect on addiction. The study offers important implications for decision makers among family members such as parents and among society in general such as policy makers to avoid side effects of online gaming.