Exploring the Relations Between Parenting Practices, Child Shyness, and Internalizing Problems in Chinese Culture

The present study explored the role of adaptive and maladaptive parenting practices as moderators in the relations between child shyness and internalizing problems (depressive symptoms, loneliness, low selfworth) in Mainland China. Participants were N = 1,066 third- to eighth-grade students (499 boys; M_age = 11.73 years, SD = 21.75) attending six public elementary and junior high schools in Shanghai, P. R. China. Multisource assessments were employed. Children provided self-reports of shyness and internalizing problems, mothers and fathers provided ratings of their adaptive (warmth, reasoning, autonomy) and maladaptive (physical hostility, verbal hostility, punishment) parenting practices, and teacher-rated children’s internalizing problem. The results indicated that the relations between shyness and internalizing problems were attenuated among children whose parents were rated higher in adaptive parenting. However, maladaptive parenting did not significantly moderate these associations. The findings underscore the importance of considering the meaning and implication of parenting in Chinese culture.