School of Teacher Education, Dezhou University, Dezhou 253023, China.
Jing Hengyi School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Apr 2;19(7):4270. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19074270.
Shyness is associated with poorer preschool engagement, but few studies have evaluated the underlying mechanisms in Chinese preschoolers. This study explored the mediating role of teacher-child closeness and the moderating role of child gender in the association between shyness and school engagement to fill this gap. With the cluster sampling method, a total of 532 young children (240 girls; M = 4.29 years, SD = 0.65 years) were recruited from 15 suburban kindergartens in East China. Mothers rated children's shyness, and teachers evaluated children's school engagement and teacher-child closeness five months later. The results reveal the following: (1) Shyness was related to higher cooperative participation and lower school avoidance; (2) Teacher-child closeness mediated the relationships between shyness and school engagement. Specifically, shyness negatively predicted teacher-child closeness, and teacher-child closeness positively predicted cooperative and independent participations and school liking, and negatively predicted school avoidance; (3) Child gender moderated the relationship between shyness and school engagement, and specifically, for boys but not girls, shyness was significantly linked with lower school avoidance; for girls but not boys, shyness was significantly related to higher cooperative participation and lower independent participation. These findings have implications for the school engagement of preschoolers.
害羞与较差的学龄前参与度有关，但很少有研究评估中国学龄前儿童害羞与参与度之间的潜在机制。本研究通过采用聚类抽样法，从华东地区的 15 所郊区幼儿园中招募了 532 名儿童（女孩 240 名，M=4.29 岁，SD=0.65 岁），以填补这一空白，探讨了害羞与学校参与度之间的关系中教师-儿童亲密关系的中介作用和儿童性别调节作用。五个月后，母亲评估了儿童的害羞程度，教师评估了儿童的学校参与度和教师-儿童亲密关系。结果表明：（1）害羞与更高的合作参与度和更低的学校回避度有关；（2）教师-儿童亲密关系中介了害羞与学校参与度之间的关系。具体来说，害羞程度负向预测了教师-儿童亲密关系，而教师-儿童亲密关系正向预测了合作和独立参与度以及学校喜好度，负向预测了学校回避度；（3）儿童性别调节了害羞与学校参与度之间的关系，具体来说，对于男孩而不是女孩，害羞与较低的学校回避度显著相关；对于女孩而不是男孩，害羞与较高的合作参与度和较低的独立参与度显著相关。这些发现对学龄前儿童的学校参与度具有启示意义。
