Relations of Shyness and Unsociability with Adjustment in Migrant and Non-migrant Children in Urban China.

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.