Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Aug;35(5):680-690.
doi: 10.1037/fam0000831. Epub 2021 Mar 11.

Chinese American children's temperamental shyness and responses to peer victimization as moderated by maternal praise

Dan Gao  1 , Craig H Hart  2 , Charissa S L Cheah  3 , Merve Balkaya  3 , Kathy T T Vu  3 , Junsheng Liu  1
Affiliations

Chinese American children's temperamental shyness and responses to peer victimization as moderated by maternal praise

Dan Gao et al. J Fam Psychol. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

This study examined the relations between Chinese American children's temperamental shyness and their assertive and submissive responses to peer victimization. The mediating role of children's anxious-withdrawn behavior in the association between their temperamental shyness and responses to peer victimization in school settings was assessed, as well as the moderating effect of observed maternal praise. Mothers of 153 Chinese American children (46.4% boys; Mage = 4.40 years, SDage = 0.79 years) reported on their children's temperamental shyness, and teachers rated children's display of anxious-withdrawn behavior and responses to peer victimization. Mothers' use of praise during their interactions with children in a free-play session was observed. Results showed that children's display of anxious-withdrawn behavior played a mediating role in the associations between their temperamental shyness and responses to peer victimization. Moreover, maternal praise moderated the relation between children's temperamental shyness and anxious-withdrawn behavior, such that more temperamentally shy children with mothers who used to praise more frequently displayed less anxious-withdrawn behavior, which, in turn, was associated with more assertiveness and less submissiveness in response to peer victimization. These findings highlight the importance of maternal praise in reducing children's display of anxious-withdrawn behavior, which in turn facilitates their capacity to cope with peer victimization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The final moderated mediation model. Significant standardized coefficients [β(SE)] were indicated in the figure and unstandardized coefficients were presented in the text. Solid lines represent significant paths and dashed lines represent non-significant paths. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Maternal praise moderated the relation between temperamental shyness and anxious-withdrawn behavior.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Acar IH, Rudasill KM, Molfese V, Torquati J, & Prokasky A (2015). Temperament and preschool children’s peer interactions. Early Education and Development, 26, 479–495. 10.1080/10409289.2015.1000718 - DOI
    1. Alsaker FD, & Valkanover S (2002). Early diagnosis and prevention of victimization in kindergarten. In Juvonen J, & Graham S (Eds.), Peer harassment in school: the plight of the vulnerable and victimized (pp. 175–95). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
    1. Balkaya M, Cheah CSL, Yu J, Hart CH, & Sun S (2018). Maternal encouragement of modest behavior, temperamental shyness, and anxious withdrawal linkages to Chinese American children’s social adjustment: A moderated mediation analysis. Social Development, 27, 876–890. 10.1111/sode.12295 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Blakely-McClure SJ, & Ostrov JM (2018). Examining co-occurring and pure relational and physical victimization in early childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 166, 1–16. 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.07.011 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Boket EG, Bahrami M, Kolyaie L, & Hosseini SA (2016). The effect of assertiveness skills training on reduction of verbal victimization of high school students. International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies, 3, 2356–5926. 10.3126/ijls.v9i4.12679 - DOI