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The present study examined the relations of shyness and unsociability with indexes of adjustment in migrant and non-migrant Chinese children. Participants were migrant (n = 413) and non-migrant students (n = 513) in fourth to seventh grades (M age = 11.4 years) in urban China. Data on shyness, unsociability, and adjustment were collected from multiple sources, including peer evaluations, teacher ratings, self-reports, and school records. The results showed that shyness was associated with social and school adjustment problems more evidently in non-migrant children than in migrant children, whereas unsociability was associated with social adjustment problems more evidently in migrant children than in non-migrant children. The results indicate that the functional meanings of children's social behaviors may differ across contexts.

Despite empirical findings that prosociality can prevent elementary and secondary school students from developing psychological maladjustment, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. The goal of the present study was to examine the mediating effects of peer preference and self-perceived social competence on the associations between prosociality and psychological maladjustment (i.e., depressive symptoms and loneliness). Participants were 951 students (Mage = 11 years, 442 girls) in Grades 3~7 from Shanghai, China. They completed peer nominations of prosociality and peer preference and self-report measures of self-perceived social competence, depressive symptoms, and loneliness. Multiple mediation analyses revealed that: (a) both peer preference and self-perceived social competence mediated the relations between prosociality and psychological maladjustment, and (b) a serial indirect pathway (i.e., prosociality → peer preference → self-perceived social competence → psychological maladjustment) emerged when controlling for age group and gender. These findings point to potential targets in the prevention and intervention of Chinese students' internalization of problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goals of the present study were to (a) develop and validate a new self-report measure of social avoidance for use among early adolescents in mainland China and (b) explore the links between subtypes of social withdrawal (i.e., shyness, unsociability, and social avoidance) and indices of socio-emotional difficulties in this cultural context. Participants were 663 early adolescents (350 boys, 313 girls) attending elementary schools ( X ¯ a g e = 10.25 years) and middle schools ( X ¯ a g e = 12.53 years) in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Measures of social withdrawal subtypes and adjustment were collected using multi-source assessments, including self-reports, peer nominations, and teacher ratings. The results provided evidence in support of the reliability and validity of the new scale of self-reported social avoidance. Shyness, unsociability, and social avoidance were also all uniquely associated with emotion dysregulation and self-reported internalizing problems. However, only social avoidance was uniquely associated with teacher-rated emotion symptoms and peer problems (as rated by both peers and teachers). Results are discussed in terms of the reasons why social avoidance may have particularly negative implications for early adolescents in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study was to examine young Chinese children's beliefs about the implications of different subtypes of social withdrawal (e.g., shyness, unsociability), including for the first time, social avoidance. Participants were 133 children in kindergarten ( n = 58, Mage = 70.85 months) and grade 1 ( n = 75, Mage = 83.49 months). Children were presented with vignettes describing hypothetical peers displaying shy, unsociable, avoidant, and socially competent behaviours and were then asked a series of questions to assess their beliefs about the implications of these different behaviours. Young children made distinctions between social withdrawal subtypes in terms of underlying motivations and emotions. Children also appeared to hold differential beliefs about the implications of different forms of social withdrawal: Of note, they anticipated that socially avoidant peers would experience the most negative outcomes. These findings provide some of the first evidence to suggest that social avoidance represents a distinct form of social withdrawal among young Chinese children. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of distinguishing between different subtypes of social withdrawal in Chinese culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this reply to the commentaries by Xinyin Chen, Charissa Cheah, Yiyuan Xu, and Dawn Watling, we further discuss the conceptual and methodological challenges that arise when attempting to study beliefs about social withdrawal (1) in the unique cultural context of China and (2) in the unique developmental age period of early childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unsociable children are likely to develop adjustment difficulties in Chinese society. The primary goal of the present study was to examine the moderating effect of behavioural control on the relation between unsociability and peer problems in Chinese children. Participants were fourth to eighth grade students in urban China ( N = 787). Assessments of unsociability, shyness, peer problems and behavioural control were obtained from peer nominations and teacher ratings. Results indicated that unsociability was positively related to peer problems in Chinese children after controlling for shyness. Also, the relation between unsociability and peer problems was attenuated among children with higher behavioural control. Thus, behavioural control may be a buffering factor that serves to protect unsociable children from developing peer problems. Gender and age also moderated these associations. Results are discussed in terms of the meaning and implications of unsociability and behavioural control in Chinese culture. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of internet technology, professional virtual community (PVC) is becoming the valuable external knowledge source for graduate students. Students search information and knowledge in specific domain, share research experiences and weave their social network in these professional virtual communities (PVCs). How to use PVC to increase graduate students’ creativity should be an important researching issue. Although students’ online behaviors have got researchers’ attention, students’ PVC behaviors and their impacts on creativity keeps less comprehensively understood. The empirically analysis of totally 930 graduate students in this study turns out that graduate students’ PVC behaviors include 17 categories which then are clustered into three dimensions: Knowledge & Networking Behavior, Behave Manner and Interactivity. To test their impacts on graduate students’ creativity, the regression results demonstrate that after controlling students’ intrinsic motivation and creative self-efficacy, Knowledge & Network Behavior and Behavior Manner both significantly predict students’ creativity. However Interactivity does not affect students’ creativity. Implications and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]