Behavioral Inhibition and Social Withdrawal across Cultures

Behavioral inhibition (BI) refers broadly to a temperament trait of avoiding interaction with novel stimuli because such stimuli provoke anxiety or distress. Social withdrawal (SW) is a related construct that refers more specifically to a tendency to avoid interaction with people. Research on these behaviors has flourished over the past 30 years. Such research has demonstrated that biological, cognitive, and social factors contribute in shaping children's BI and SW, and mutually influence the developmental outcomes of these behaviors. Recent research has also shed important light on cultural variability in the social and psychological implications of these behaviors.