The Development of Shyness and Social Withdrawal

Kenneth H. Rubin, PhD, is Professor of Human Development and Director of the Center for Children, Relationships, and Culture at the University of Maryland. His research interests include children’s peer and family relationships and their social and emotional development. Dr. Rubin is the recipient of a Killam Research Fellowship (Canada Council) and an Ontario Mental Health Senior Research Fellowship, is past president of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, and has published 11 books and over 240 peer-reviewed chapters and articles. He is a Fellow of the Canadian and American Psychological Associations and the Association for Psychological Science. Robert J. Coplan, PhD, is a developmental psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. His research interests concern the overlap between children’s social-emotional functioning and developmental psychopathology, with a primary focus on the development of shyness and social anxiety in childhood. Dr. Coplan is Editor of the journal Social Development and the author of the forthcoming books What Teachers Need to Know about Shyness and Social Development in Childhood and Adolescence: A Contemporary Reader.