Trajectories of temperamental shyness and attention shifting in Chinese children and their relations to psychosocial adjustment at entry to elementary school

Abstract

AbstractThis study examined the relations between trajectories of temperamental shyness and attention shifting in Chinese children, the heterogeneity in these trajectories, and how psychosocial adjustment at entry to elementary school varied depending on different trajectories. The participants of 2009 and 2010 cohorts (N = 268, 51% male; Mage = 3.68 years at T1) were recruited from Yinchuan, China. On average, temperamental shyness declined and attention shifting increased over a 4‐year span from preschool to the first grade, with a negative relation between the two linear slopes, and substantial heterogeneity found in both trajectories. Children characterized by High‐Fluctuating temperamental shyness and Low‐Stable attention shifting trajectories adjusted worse than other children when they entered elementary school. The findings provide preliminary support for the top‐down model of attention shifting in the development of temperamental shyness in the Chinese context.