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Most research treats shyness as a homogenous phenomenon when examining its correlates and consequences, which limits the identification of specific groups of shy children who may be at differential risk for maladaptive social outcomes. Here, we examined whether different types of shyness were uniquely associated with social adjustment and physiological stress reactivity in school-age children (n = 92; Mage = 7.47 years; SD = 2.23 years). During the completion of a videotaped self-presentation task, behavioral measures of positivity and avoidance were coded in order to derive shyness groups (i.e., positive shy: high positivity and high avoidance; negative shy: low positivity and high avoidance; and non-shy: low avoidance). Further, during the self-presentation task, direct observation of activity level was coded, and salivary cortisol reactivity to the social stressor was measured. We also collected parent- and teacher report of children's social anxiety, and parent report of children's sociability. We found that negative shy children were more socially anxious according to both parent- and teacher report, less sociable, and they also displayed reduced activity levels during the speech than the positive shy and non-shy children. Positive shy and non-shy children were indistinguishable across all measures of social behavior. Shyness group had no influence on children's cortisol stress reactivity. Our findings provide support for heterogeneity in the expression of shyness, and highlight that not all shy children experience poor social adjustment. Expression of positivity during socially threatening situations may have an adaptive social function in shy school-age children, as it is associated with reduced social anxiety and increased sociability. (PsycINFO Database Record

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Heightened delta-beta correlation has been conceptualized as reflecting exaggerated neural regulation and has been implicated in anxiety. Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament characterized by wariness to novelty and is a robust predictor of anxiety, but delta-beta correlation has not been investigated in relation to childhood BI. We examined the relation between BI and between-subjects (i.e., across participants) and within-subjects (i.e., across data epochs) measures of baseline EEG delta-beta correlation in 118 children. Using a between-subjects measure, children scoring high on BI had higher delta-beta correlation relative to low BI children at frontal and central, and marginally higher in parietal, brain regions. Using a within-subjects measure, continuous BI scores were positively correlated with central and parietal delta-beta correlation. Delta-beta correlation may be a neural correlate of BI in childhood that displays differences in region specificity, correlation strength, and variability of correlation values when comparing between-and within-subjects measures. Keywordsbehavioral inhibition; delta-beta correlation; EEG; temperament; child Behavioral inhibition (BI) is an early emerging temperamental style characterized by fear and wariness in response to novelty (Garcia-Coll & Kagan, 1984). Studying the neurobiological correlates of BI may provide greater precision into our understanding of the biological processes that may underlie this phenotype

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Background: Correlated activity of slow-wave (e.g. delta) and fast-wave (e.g. beta) frontal brain oscillations is thought to be an electrophysiological correlate of individual differences in neuroendocrine activity and anxiety in adult samples. We know, however, relatively little about the physiological and functional correlates of delta-beta coupling in children. Method: We examined whether longitudinal patterns of children's basal salivary cortisol and social anxiety across two visits separated by 1 year were associated with frontal brain delta-beta correlation in children (M age = 7.59 years, SD = 1.70). At Time 1 (T1), resting baseline electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings were collected from the children and delta and beta power was measured, and at both T1 and Time 2 (T2), basal salivary cortisol was measured, and parents reported on children's symptoms of social anxiety. Results: Using latent class growth curve analysis, we found that children's salivary cortisol across visits was characterized by a high, stable class (53%), and a low, unstable class (47%), and children's social anxiety was characterized by a high, stable class (50%) and a low, stable class (50%). Using Fisher's r-to-z transformation, we found that frontal EEG delta-beta correlation was significantly stronger among children with high, stable salivary cortisol levels (compared to the low, unstable class; z = 2.11, p = .02), and among children with high, stable social anxiety levels (compared to the low, stable class; z = 1.72, p = .04). Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that longitudinal patterns of neuroendocrine stress activity and social anxiety may be associated with the correlation of EEG power in slow and fast frontal brain oscillations as early as childhood.

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