Shy, happy, calm, and controlled: Temperament correlates of socioemotional adjustment in toddlerhood.

Understanding heterogeneity in shy or inhibited children's risk for poor socioemotional adjustment can inform intervention targets. The present study considered temperament traits associated with approach and regulation that may alter trajectories away from internalizing behaviors and poor socioemotional competence among shy toddlers. Fifty-five 22-24-month-old children (22 boys) preselected for parent-reported shyness were observed during laboratory tasks designed to measure shyness, activity level, positive affect, and inhibitory control between January 2016 and January 2018. Basal respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was obtained for a subset of the sample from recordings of cardiac activity as toddlers watched a neutral video. Hierarchical regression analyses predicted internalizing and competence from activity level, positive affect, inhibitory control, and basal RSA, alone and in interaction with shyness, while controlling for child gender. Activity level was positively associated with internalizing behaviors, and inhibitory control and positive affect were negatively associated with internalizing behaviors. Importantly, shyness was associated with more internalizing behaviors among children low in inhibitory control or high in basal RSA, but not among children high in inhibitory control or low in basal RSA. Relations between temperament traits and socioemotional adjustment were specific to internalizing behaviors and did not generalize to competence. The present findings suggest that in toddlerhood positive affect and inhibitory control may serve as protective factors for shy children, lessening risk for internalizing problems, whereas high activity or greater basal RSA may forecast risk. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Parental gentle encouragement promotes shy toddlers' regulation in social contexts.

Gentle encouragement to approach appears to reduce risk for anxiety and is commonly incorporated into parenting interventions for inhibited preschoolers, yet little is known regarding whether gentle encouragement facilitates in-the-moment regulation as shy or inhibited children face social novelty, particularly during the toddler period. The current study used a sample of 55 temperamentally shy toddlers (21-24 months old) to examine toddler regulation in novel social contexts in relation to parental gentle encouragement to engage. Contexts included low-threat social novelty (i.e., a clown and puppets) and moderately threatening social novelty (i.e., strangers). Using an experimental design, parents were randomly assigned to provide behaviors thought to represent gentle encouragement: warm responsiveness to toddler fear and encouragement of toddler autonomy, prompt to engage, both warmth and prompt, or remaining uninvolved (no-encouragement control). Relative to toddlers in the no-encouragement control condition, toddlers whose parents were instructed to provide warmth showed less fear and more engagement in moderately threatening social contexts, and toddlers whose parents were instructed to provide both warmth and prompts showed greater suppression of respiratory sinus arrhythmia in low-threat social contexts. Findings suggest that parental gentle encouragement may promote regulated responses in social contexts in shy toddlers. Encouragement of toddler autonomy and warm responsiveness to toddlers in particular may help shy toddlers to engage with, rather than withdraw from, new people.

Shy toddlers act bold: The roles of respiratory sinus arrhythmia and parent emotion language.

Shy children show reticence in social contexts, presumably as a way of regulating their fear. The present study evaluated whether toddler physiological regulation and parent emotion language facilitated shy toddlers' (21-24 months) engagement with an unfamiliar female examiner. Toddler high basal respiratory sinus arrhythmia was positively associated with bold approach with the examiner. Parent emotion explanations were positively associated with toddler bold approach, particularly for toddlers with low basal respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Findings suggest that toddlers' dispositional capacity for regulation and parents' explanations of emotion in everyday conversations with their toddlers may help shy toddlers to socially engage.