Shyness Associations With Approach/Avoidance Behaviors in Emerging Adulthood: The Moderating Role of Emotional Intelligence Differs for Women and Men

Previous research has shown that shyness is a risk factor for poor socio-emotional outcomes, although not all shy adults develop these problematic behaviors. Emotional intelligence (EI) may be one explanatory factor that helps facilitate adaptive social behaviors and buffers against developing internalizing behaviors in some shy individuals. Accordingly, this study investigated whether EI moderated the relation between shyness and social approach (i.e., sociability) and avoidance (i.e., internalizing behaviors) behaviors in emerging adulthood. Participants were 523 young adults (M = 18.65 years, SD = 0.90, 19.3% male) who completed online questionnaires related to shyness, EI, sociability, and internalizing behaviors. We found that the EI subfactor Others' Emotion Appraisal (OEA) moderated a negative relation between shyness and sociability. Specifically, shy women with higher OEA reported higher levels of sociability than those with lower levels of OEA. Notably, this effect was not observed in men. As well, contrary to our expectation, EI had no moderating effect on the relation between shyness and internalizing behaviors. Findings indicate that the ability to perceive others' emotions may help shy women navigate social situations more effectively. Moreover, they challenge the idea that EI uniformly moderates the effects of shyness, instead highlighting the different pathways through which specific emotional competencies interact with personality and sex.