Article
Associations Between Behavioral Inhibition and Children's Social Problem-solving Behavior During Social Exclusion
Olga L. Walker,
Heather A. Henderson, Kathryn A. Degnan, Elizabeth C. Penela, Nathan A. Fox,
Corresponding Author
Olga L. Walker
University of Maryland
Correspondence should be addressed to Olga L. Walker, Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, 3304 Benjamin Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorOlga L. Walker,
Heather A. Henderson, Kathryn A. Degnan, Elizabeth C. Penela, Nathan A. Fox,
Corresponding Author
Olga L. Walker
University of Maryland
Correspondence should be addressed to Olga L. Walker, Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, 3304 Benjamin Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
The current study examined the associations between the early childhood temperament of behavioral inhibition and children's displays of social problem-solving (SPS) behavior during social exclusion. During toddlerhood (the ages of two to three), maternal report and behavioral observations of behavioral inhibition were collected. At the age of seven, children's SPS behaviors were observed during a laboratory social exclusion task based on the commonly used Cyberball game. Results showed that behavioral inhibition was positively associated with displayed social withdrawal and negatively associated with assertive behavior during the observed social exclusion task at seven years of age. These results add to our understanding of inhibited children's SPS behaviors during social exclusion and provide evidence for the associations between toddler temperament and children's social behavior during middle childhood.
References
- Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Pergamin, L., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2007). Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: A meta-analytic study. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 1–24.
- Brant, R. (1990). Assessing proportionality in the proportional odds model for ordinal logistic regression. Biometrics, 46, 1171–1178.
- Burgess, K. B., Wojslawowicz, J. C., Rubin, K. H., Rose-Krasnor, L., & Booth-LaForce, C. (2006). Social information processing and coping strategies of shy/withdrawn and aggressive children: Does friendship matter? Child Development, 77, 371–383.
- Calkins, S. D., Fox, N. A., & Marshall, T. R. (1996). Behavioral and physiological antecedents of Inhibited and uninhibited behavior. Child Development, 67, 523–540.
- Coplan, R. J., & Armer, M. (2007). A ‘multitude’ of solitude: A closer look at social withdrawal and nonsocial play in early childhood. Child Development Perspectives, 1, 26–32.
- Coplan, R. J., Prakash, K., O'Neil, K., & Armer, M. (2004). Do you ‘want’ to play? Distinguishing between conflicted shyness and social disinterest in early childhood. Developmental Psychology, 40, 244–258.
- Crozier, W. R. (2000). Shyness and social relationships: Continuity and change. In W. R. Crozier (Ed.), Shyness: Development, consolidation, and change (pp. 1–21). New York: Routledge.
- Degnan, K. A., & Fox, N. A. (2007). Behavioral inhibition and anxiety disorders: Multiple levels of a resilience process. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 729–746.
- Eisenberg, N., Smith, C. L., & Spinrad, T. L. (2011). Effortful control: Relations with emotion regulation, adjustment, and socialization in childhood. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications ( 2nd ed., pp. 263–285). New York: Guilford Press.
- Ekman, P. (1984). Expression and the nature of emotion. In K. R. Scherer & P. Ekman (Eds.), Approaches to emotion (pp. 319–343). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Erdley, C. A., Cain, K. M., Loomis, C. C., Dumas-Hines, F., & Dweck, C. S. (1997). Relations among children's social goals, implicit personality theories, and responses to social failure. Developmental Psychology, 33, 263–272.
- Fox, N. A., Henderson, H. A., Marshall, P. J., Nichols, K. E., & Ghera, M. M. (2005). Behavioral inhibition: Linking biology and behavior within a developmental framework. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 235–262.
- Fox, N. A., Henderson, H. A., Rubin, K. H., Calkins, S. D., & Schmidt, L. A. (2001). Continuity and discontinuity of behavioral inhibition and exuberance: Psychophysiological and behavioral influences across the first four years of life. Child Development, 72, 1–21.
- Gazelle, H., & Druhen, M. J. (2009). Anxious solitude and peer exclusion predict social helplessness, upset affect, and vagal regulation in response to behavioral rejection by a friend. Developmental Psychology, 45, 1077–1096.
- Gazelle, H. & Ladd, G. W. (2003). Anxious solitude and peer exclusion: A diathesis-stress model of internalizing trajectories in childhood. Child Development, 74, 257–278.
- Gazelle, H., & Rudolph, K. D. (2004). Moving toward and away from the world: Social approach and avoidance trajectories in anxious solitary youth. Child Development, 75, 829–849.
- Goldsmith, H. H. (1996). Studying temperament via construction of the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire. Child Development, 67, 218–235.
- Hane, A. A., Fox, N. A., Henderson, H. A., & Marshall, P. J. (2008). Behavioral reactivity and approach-withdrawal bias in infancy. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1491–1496.
- Henderson, H. A. (2010). Electrophysiological correlates of cognitive control and the regulation of shyness in children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 35, 177–193.
- Henderson, H. A., Marshall, P. J., Fox, N. A., & Rubin, K. H. (2004). Psychophysiological and behavioral evidence for varying forms and functions of nonsocial behavior in preschoolers. Child Development, 75, 251–263.
- Joffe, R. D., Dobson, K. S., Stuart, F., Marriage, K., & Haley, G. (1990). Social problem-solving in depressed, conduct-disordered, and normal adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 18, 565–575.
- Kagan, J., Reznick, J. S., & Snidman, N. (1985). Temperamental inhibition in early childhood. In R. Plomin & J. Dunn (Eds.), The study of temperament: Changes, continuities, and challenges (pp. 53–65). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Ladd, G. W. (2005). Contributions of peer relationships to children's development and adjustment. In G. W. Ladd (Ed.), Children's peer relationships and social competence (pp. 145–158). New Haven, CT and London: University Press.
- Lemerise, E. A., & Arsenio, W. F. (2000). An integrated model of emotion processes and cognition in social information processing. Child Development, 71, 107–118.
- London, B., Downey, G., Bonica, C., & Paltin, I. (2007). Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 17, 481–506.
- Pérez-Edgar, K., Bar-Haim, Y., McDermott, J. M., Chronis-Tuscano, A., Pine, D. S., & Fox, N. A. (2010). Attention biases to threat and behavioral inhibition in early childhood shape adolescent social withdrawal. Emotion, 10, 349–357.
- Pérez-Edgar, K., Reeb-Sutherland, B. C., McDermott, J. M., White, L. K., Henderson, H. A., Degnan, K. A., et al. (2011). Attention bias to threat link behavioral inhibition to social withdrawal over time in very young children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 885–895.
- Putnam, S. P., & Rothbart, M. K. (2006). Development of short and very short forms of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 87, 103–113.
- Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (2006). Temperament. In W. Damon, R. Lerner, & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development ( 6th ed., pp. 99–166). New York: Wiley.
- K. Rubin, W. Bukowski, & B. Laursen (Eds.) (2009a). Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups. New York: The Guilford Press.
- Rubin, K. H., Coplan, R. J., & Bowker, J. C. (2009b). Social withdrawal in childhood. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 141–171.
- Rubin, K. H., Daniels-Beirness, T., & Bream, L. (1984). Social isolation and social problem solving: A longitudinal study. Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 52, 17–25.
-
Rubin, K. H., & Krasnor, L. R. (1983). Age and gender differences in solutions to hypothetical social problems. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 4, 263–275.
10.1016/0193-3973(83)90022-9 Google Scholar
-
Rubin, K. H., & Rose-Krasnor, L. R. (1992). Interpersonal problem solving and social competence in children. In V. B. Van Hasselt & M. Hersen (Eds.), Handbook of social development: A lifespan perspective (pp. 283–323). New York: Plenum Press.
10.1007/978-1-4899-0694-6_12 Google Scholar
- Schmidt, L. A. (1999). Frontal brain electrical activity in shyness and sociability. Psychological Science, 10, 316–320.
- Stewart, S. L., & Rubin, K. H. (1995). The social problem-solving skills of anxious-withdrawn children. Development and Psychpathology, 7, 323–336.
- Thompson, R. A., & Calkins, S. D. (1996). The double-edged sword: Emotion regulation in high risk children. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 163–182.
- van Nieuwenhuijzen, M., Bijman, E. R., Lamberix, I. C. W., Wijnroks, L., Orobio de Castro, B., Vermeer, A., et al. (2005). Do children do what they say? Responses to hypothetical and real-life social problems in children with mild intellectual disabilities and behaviour problems. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 49, 419–433.
- Walker, O. L., Degnan, K. A., Fox, N. A., & Henderson, H. A. (2013). Social problem solving skills in early childhood: Developmental change and the influence of shyness. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 34, 185–193.
- Walker, O. L., & Henderson, H. A. (2012). Temperament and social problem solving competence in preschool: Influences on academic skills in early elementary school. Social Development, 21, 761–779.
- White, L. K., McDermott, J. M., Degnan, K. A., Henderson, H. A., & Fox, N. A. (2011). Behavioral inhibition and anxiety: The moderating roles of inhibitory control and attention shifting. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 735–747.
- Wichmann, C., Coplan, R. J., & Daniels, T. (2004). The social cognitions of withdrawn children. Social Development, 13, 377–392.
- Williams, K. D., Cheung, C. K. T., & Choi, W. (2000). CyberOstracism: Effects of being ignored over the Internet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 748–762.
- Williams, K. D., & Jarvis, B. (2006). Cyberball: A program for use in research on ostracism and interpersonal acceptance. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 38, 174–180.
