Shyness in late childhood: relations with attributional styles and self-esteem

Background Shyness in late childhood is related to social and psychological problems. The present study examined the relations among shyness, attributional styles and self‐esteem. It was hypothesized that self‐esteem mediated the effects of attributional styles on shyness. Methods Self‐reported data on degree of shyness, attributional styles and self‐esteem were obtained from 326 Chinese children with mean age of 10.85 years. Results It was found that positive attributional styles predicted shyness in the negative direction and the effects were fully mediated by self‐esteem, and negative attributional styles predicted shyness in the positive direction both directly and through self‐esteem. Conclusion The results imply that how children attribute positive and negative outcomes affect both self‐esteem and shyness. It is suggested that practitioners should conduct attribution‐retraining workshops for shy children and help teachers and parents learn how to mitigate negative attributional style and foster positive attributional styles in children.