Social inhibition and overfriendliness as related to socioemotional functioning in 7- and 8-year-old children

Examined high, medium, and low social inhibition groups in a Swedish sample (N = 815) of 7- and 8-year-old children on the basis of parental reports about their children's reaction to novel social situations. High social inhibition was associated with increased levels of internalizing problems and low social competence. Among the low-inhibited children, we identified a subgroup by using an index of overfriendliness. Overfriendliness was associated with more internalizing, externalizing, and attention problems and lower prosocial orientation. The findings support the notion of high social inhibition as a risk factor for the development of internalizing problems and low social competence but question the view of low inhibition as descriptive of generally well-functioning children. Rather, this is true for low-inhibited children only when they are also low in overfriendliness. Thus, the results point to a need for a better understanding of developmental pathways for both high- and low-inhibited children.