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. 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 The mediating role of children's anxious-withdrawn behavior in the association between their temperamental shyness and responses to peer victimization in school settings was assessed, as well as the moderating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= 0.79 years) reported on their children's temperamental shyness, and teachers rated children's display of anxious-withdrawn behavior and responses to peer victimization.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 Results showed that children's display of anxious-withdrawn behavior played a mediating role in the associations between their temperamental shyness and responses to peer victimization. Moreover, maternal praise moderated the relation between children's temperamental shyness and anxious-withdrawn behavior, such that more temperamentally shy children with mothers who used to praise more frequently displayed less anxious-withdrawn behavior, which, in turn, was associated with more assertiveness and less submissiveness in response to peer victimization. These findings highlight the importance of maternal praise in reducing children's display of anxious-withdrawn behavior, which in turn facilitates their capacity to cope with peer victimization.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).

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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

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