The Handbook of Solitude

Studies conducted in Chinese societies with Confucian collectivism as the primary principle in guiding social activities have consistently shown links between unsociability and pervasive adjustment problems (e.g., Coplan et al., 2016; Chen et al., 2011; Liu et al., 2015). Coplan and colleagues (2016), for example, found in China that, compared with “average” children, unsociable children were more likely to be isolated and victimized by peers. Moreover, unsociable children were rated by teachers as less competent, had more learning problems, and reported higher levels of loneliness and depression. In a sample of Chinese school age youth, Zhang and Eggum‐Wilkens (2018) found that peer‐reported unsociability was associated with peer rejection and exclusion and school maladjustment. However, self‐reported sociability was not associated with problems. The authors suggest that unsociable Chinese adolescents have difficulties with peers and at school only when they are perceived as unsociable by peers. It is likely that peer perceptions and evaluations serve as important mediators in the associations between unsociability and social and school problems.

An interesting issue is how the functional meaning of unsociability in children may be influenced by macro‐level social, economic, and cultural changes. Chen et al. (2011) found in a rural region of China where traditional values have been maintained that, whereas shyness was generally associated with indexes of adjustment (e.g., social status, teacher‐rated competence, and academic achievement), unsociability was associated with peer rejection and broad school and psychological problems (e.g., teacher‐rated learning problems, depression) in school‐age children. As individual independence and autonomy are increasingly encouraged in recent years in urban China, shyness in childhood has been found to be associated with maladaptive outcomes (e.g., Chen et al., 2005; Liu et al., 2015). The social change, however, has not evidently affected the meaning of unsociability; unsociable urban Chinese children still experience more adjustment difficulties than their counterparts in Canada (Liu et al., 2015). Researchers should investigate whether unsociable children become better adjusted as China continues to change toward a more urbanized society in the future.

It has been argued that social interactions are important for children to understand norms and expectations for appropriate behaviors, learn various skills in social problem‐solving, form meaningful relationships with others, and obtain healthy psychological outcomes (e.g., Hartup, 1992). Thus, children who withdraw into solitude are often viewed as at risk for developing socioemotional and cognitive problems (e.g., Rubin et al., 2009). Research from different cultures suggests that this argument is not correct. Social withdrawal may be manifested in different forms due to different underlying motivations. As the major forms or types of social withdrawal, for example, shyness and unsociability may have different meanings and are associated with different developmental outcomes across cultures (Chen, 2019). Among the different types, however, only shyness has been extensively studied in Asian and Western societies, although researchers have recently paid increased attention to cultural influence on unsociability (Coplan et al., 2016; Bowker & Raja, 2011; Zhang & Eggum‐Wilkens, 2018).

Researchers have recently studied social avoidance (active evasion of social interactions) and its relations with adjustment (Coplan et al., 2018; Ding et al., 2019). Based on limited evidence, it appears that social avoidance is related to peer relationship difficulties and internalizing problems in different societies (Ding et al., 2019). Yet, it remains to be investigated what social avoidance means and how it is related to indexes of socioemotional functioning in different cultural settings.

Some other constructs that are related to social withdrawal include self‐conscious shyness (Eggum‐Wilkens et al., 2015) and positive shyness (Colonnesi et al., 2013; Colonnesi et al., 2014 – see also Hassan et al., Chapter 2). Self‐conscious shyness refers to emotional reaction to being socially exposed and the center of attention from others, especially authority figures. This type of shyness may be manifested as embarrassment and blushing (Crozier, 2010; Eggum‐Wilkens et al., 2015). It will be interesting to investigate self‐conscious shyness in different cultures. Positive shyness, which was recently proposed by Colonnesi et al. (2014), refers to the positive expression of shyness (i.e., coy smile) that infants use to regulate emotions in anxiety‐provoking situations. According to Colonnesi et al. (2014), positive shyness may serve to enhance prosociality, sociability, and trust. If this were the case, it seems reasonable to expect that positive shyness is generally associated with adaptive developmental outcomes, although culture may modify the associations depending on how it is supported by adults and peers during socialization.

Most extant studies on social withdrawal in children and adolescents have been conducted in Western and East Asian societies. It will be important to expand the research to other societies. Relatedly, it will be important to examine the processes through which cultural contexts shape the display and development of social withdrawal. According to the contextual‐developmental perspective (Chen, 2019; Chen & Schmidt, 2015), for example, cultural norms guide adults’ and peers’ evaluations of and responses to behaviors in social interactions, which in turn serve to regulate children’s behaviors. At the same time, children actively participate in social interactions through constructing cultural norms for group activities and reacting to social evaluations and responses. This perspective may help future explorations of the processes of cultural influence on children’s social withdrawal.

The implications of social change for individual development are an important topic in developmental science (Chen & French, 2008; Silbereisen & Chen, 2010; Zeng & Greenfield, 2015). It has been argued (Chen, 2015; Kagitcibasi, 2012) that although urbanization and modernization in many developing countries may allow for greater individual autonomy, social change may not necessarily weaken the significance of group‐oriented values. Traditional and new values may serve different functions in human development and thus may coexist through integration and organization. It will be interesting to investigate different types of social withdrawal in changing contexts.

1 An, D. & Eggum‐Wilkens, N.D. (2019). Do cultural orientations moderate the relation between Chinese adolescents’ shyness and depressive symptoms? it depends on their academic achievement. Social Development. doi: 10.1111/sode.12365

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