Although shyness has been found to be a concurrent constraint on young children's empathy and instrumental helping, there is limited evidence to suggest that this temperamental profile has longitudinal effects on prosocial behaviors. Here, we examined the concurrent and longitudinal relations between children's shyness and prosocial behaviors, as well as the intervening impact of instrumental helping behavior on later empathic response in typically developing children (N = 86; 45 female). Shyness was coded from direct observations and reported by parents at Time 1 (Mage = 54.3 months, SD = 2.9), Time 2 (Mage = 66.5 months, SD = 2.8), and Time 3 (Mage = 77.9 months, SD = 2.8), helping behavior was assessed at Time 2, and data on cognitive and affective empathy were collected at Time 3. Increases in shyness resulted in longitudinal reductions of affective empathy but not cognitive empathy or instrumental helping. As well, Time 2 helping behavior mediated the relation between Time 1 shyness and Time 3 affective empathy and, to some extent, the relation between Time 2 shyness and Time 3 affective empathy. These findings suggest that shyness concurrently impedes early helping behaviors, and that this withdrawal may contribute to reductions in shy children's prosocial learning opportunities that inform later empathic responses.

中文翻译：

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作为亲社会实践的帮助：儿童害羞、帮助行为和移情反应之间的纵向关系。

尽管已经发现害羞同时限制了幼儿的同理心和工具性帮助，但有限的证据表明这种气质特征对亲社会行为具有纵向影响。在这里，我们研究了儿童害羞与亲社会行为之间的并发和纵向关系，以及工具性帮助行为对典型发育儿童（N = 86；45 名女性）后期共情反应的干预影响。害羞由直接观察编码并由父母在时间 1（Mage = 54.3 个月，SD = 2.9）、时间 2（Mage = 66.5 个月，SD = 2.8）和时间 3（Mage = 77.9 个月，SD = 2.8）报告，帮助行为在时间 2 进行评估，在时间 3 收集有关认知和情感移情的数据。害羞的增加导致情感同理心的纵向减少，但不会导致认知同理心或工具性帮助。同样，时间 2 的帮助行为介导了时间 1 害羞和时间 3 情感移情之间的关系，并且在某种程度上调节了时间 2 害羞和时间 3 情感移情之间的关系。这些发现表明，害羞同时阻碍了早期的帮助行为，而这种退缩可能会导致害羞儿童亲社会学习机会的减少，而这些机会为后来的移情反应提供信息。