Relations over Time among Children's Shyness, Emotionality, and Internalizing Problems.

Data regarding children's shyness and emotionality were collected at three time points, two years apart (T1: N = 214, M = 6.12 years; T2: N = 185, M = 7.67 years; T3: N = 185, M = 9.70 years), and internalizing data were collected at T1 and T3. Relations among parent-rated shyness, emotionality (parent- and teacher-rated anger, sadness, and positive emotional intensity [EI]), and mother-rated internalizing were examined in panel models. In some cases, shyness predicted emotionality two years later (teacher-rated anger, parent-rated sadness, teacher-rated positive EI) and emotionality sometimes predicted shyness two years later (teacher-rated sadness, parent-rated positive EI, teacher-rated positive EI). Parent-rated shyness and/or emotionality (parent-rated anger and parent-rated sadness) predicted internalizing at T3. Results shed light on developmental relations between emotionality and shyness, as well as processes of risk for, or protection against, the development of internalizing problems.

Longitudinal Relations among Parental Emotional Expressivity and Sympathy and Prosocial Behavior in Adolescence.

Concurrent and longitudinal relations among parental emotional expressivity, children's sympathy, and children's prosocial behavior were assessed with correlations and structural equation modeling when the children were 55 months to 97 months old (n = 214; M age = 73 months, SD = 9.59) and 8 years later (n = 130; ages 150 to 195 months old, M = 171 months, SD = 10.01). Parent emotional expressivity (positive and negative) and children's sympathy were stable across time and early parent-reported sympathy predicted adolescents' sympathy and prosocial behavior. Parents' positive expressivity was positively related to sympathy and prosocial behavior, but in adolescence, this was likely due primarily to consistency over time. Early observed parental negative expressivity was negatively related to adolescents' prosocial behavior. Reported negative expressivity in childhood was negatively related to boys' sympathy in childhood and positively related to girls' sympathy behavior in adolescence. The later relation remained significant when controlling for the stability of parental expressivity and sympathy, suggesting an emerging positive relation between the variables for girls.