In the present study, we examine short- and long-term associations between shyness and socio-emotional difficulties from early to middle childhood. Participants in this study were part of the Matter of the First Friendship Study (MOFF), a large-scale multi-wave longitudinal study. At Time 1, N = 555 4-year-old children were recruited from childcare centers and followed across four data collections. At four timepoints of data collection, teachers rated children's shyness and indices of socio-emotional difficulties (i.e., internalizing difficulties, peer problems) from age 4 to 7 years. Parents provided background and demographic information. Results from growth curve analyses showed that shyness was concurrently associated with emotional difficulties and problems with peers at each time point. However, shyness at age 4 years did not significantly predict the longitudinal trajectory of socio-emotional difficulties across childhood. Overall, these results indicated that concurrent levels of shyness are associated with socio-emotional difficulties, however, whether shyness serves as a distal predictor of socio-emotional difficulties from early to middle childhood remains less clear.

中文翻译：

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检查童年害羞和社会情感困难之间纵向关联中的发射和圈套效应

在本研究中，我们研究了从儿童早期到中期的害羞与社会情感困难之间的短期和长期关联。这项研究的参与者是第一次友谊研究 (MOFF) 的一部分，这是一项大规模的多波纵向研究。在时间 1，N = 从托儿中心招募了 555 名 4 岁儿童，并在四个数据收集中进行了跟踪。在数据收集的四个时间点，教师对 4 至 7 岁儿童的害羞和社会情感困难指数（即内化困难、同伴问题）进行评分。父母提供了背景和人口统计信息。生长曲线分析的结果表明，害羞同时与情绪困难和在每个时间点与同龄人的问题有关。然而，4 岁时的害羞并不能显着预测整个童年时期社会情感困难的纵向轨迹。总体而言，这些结果表明，并发害羞程度与社会情感困难有关，然而，害羞是否可以作为儿童早期到中期社会情感困难的远端预测因素仍不清楚。