Shyness and education: the relationship between shyness, social class and personality variables in adolescents

The study considers the relationship between shyness, some related personality variables and socio-economic status. Adolescent shyness levels are examined using two self-report questionnaires which cover the spectrum of inherent, emotional and situational shyness. These findings were correlated with individual levels of anxiety, neuroticism and also with socio-economic status. The educational implications of these results are discussed and the problem of the definition of shyness is addressed. The sample comprised 650 adolescents in the age range 11-18 years, drawn at random from two secondary schools, the number of boys being 300 and the number of girls 350. The results indicate that high levels of both situational and inherent shyness are related significantly to high levels of anxiety and neuroticism. Inherent shyness and situational shyness correlate only moderately with one another. Low levels of situational and inherent shyness are related positively and significantly to high levels of self-esteem and extraversion. Similar patterns of relationships occur for the other variables considered. The stability coefficients of correlations for each type of shyness were high after an interval of six months. Furthermore, shyness is related significantly to the socio-economic class of adolescents: a relatively higher percentage of shyness occurs among adolescents of lower socio-economic class.