Generational Trends in Children's Shyness: Does COVID-19 Matter?

Louis A Schmidt; Christina A Brook; Raha Hassan; Xiaoxue Kong; Taigan L MacGowan; Kristie L Poole; Laura A Theall; Michelle K Jetha

doi:10.1007/s10578-025-01862-y

Generational Trends in Children's Shyness: Does COVID-19 Matter?

Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2025 Jun 27. doi: 10.1007/s10578-025-01862-y. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Louis A Schmidt¹, Christina A Brook², Raha Hassan³, Xiaoxue Kong⁴, Taigan L MacGowan², Kristie L Poole², Laura A Theall⁵, Michelle K Jetha⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada. schmidtl@mcmaster.ca.
² Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada.
³ Department of Psychology, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada.
⁵ Child and Parent Resource Institute, London, ON, Canada.
⁶ Department of Psychology, Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS, Canada.

PMID: 40571863
DOI: 10.1007/s10578-025-01862-y

Abstract

Although early childhood shyness is known to portend later internalizing-related problems, we know relatively little about how broad socio-cultural and socio-historical factors shape children's shyness. In this study, we leveraged the COVID-19 pandemic as a quasi-experiment to examine generational and period differences in parent-reported children's shyness at the same age in three separate cohorts (N = 648): Generation Z (tested: 1999-2000, n = 217, M = 4.43 years), Generation Alpha: pre-pandemic (tested: 2018-2019, n = 217, M = 4.76 years) and mid-pandemic (tested: 2021, n = 214, M = 4.47 years). The two Generation Alpha groups did not differ on shyness levels despite the pandemic-related social restrictions, and both Generation Alpha cohorts had unexpectedly relatively lower parent-reported shyness levels today compared with Generation Z assessed approximately twenty years ago. Observed behavioral measures of shyness collected prior to the pandemic on a subset of children also revealed lower levels of shyness in Generation Alpha pre-pandemic compared with Generation Z, converging with parent-reported findings of shyness. Findings suggest that generational differences in children's shyness may result from more protracted socio-cultural influences than from acute period effects such as COVID-19 lockdowns.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Children’s shyness; Generational differences; Measurement invariance; Personality development; Socio-cultural influences.