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©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Role of rumination in the relationship between metacognition and shyness
Sara Palmieri, Giovanni Mansueto, Simona Scaini, Francesca Fiore, Sandra Sassaroli, Giovanni M Ruggiero, Rosita Borlimi, Bernardo J Carducci
Sara Palmieri, Giovanni Mansueto, Francesca Fiore, Sandra Sassaroli, Studi Cognitivi, Cognitive Psychotherapy School and Research Center, Milan 20121, Italy
Sara Palmieri, Giovanni Mansueto, Simona Scaini, Sandra Sassaroli, Giovanni M Ruggiero, Rosita Borlimi, Department of Psychology, Sigmund Freud University, Milan 20143, Italy
Giovanni M Ruggiero, Psicoterapia Cognitiva e Ricerca, Cognitive Psychotherapy School, Milan 20121, Italy
Bernardo J Carducci, Shyness Research Institute, Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, OH 47150, United States
Author contributions: Palmieri S wrote the drafts of the manuscript, completed the literature searches; Mansueto G wrote the drafts of the manuscript, run the statistical analyses; Scaini S wrote the drafts of the manuscript and revised the statistical analyses; Fiore F, Sassaroli S, Ruggiero GM, Borlimi R and Carducci BJ revised the final version of the manuscript and coordinated the data collection; all authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki and the ethical guidelines established by the Italian Association of Psychology.
Informed consent statement: All participants provided informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors of this study have no conflict of interests to disclose.
STROBE statement: The guidelines of the STROBE Statement have been adopted.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Simona Scaini, PhD, Lecturer, Department of Psychology, Sigmund Freud University, Ripa di Porta Ticinese 77, Milan 20143, Italy. s.scaini@milano-sfu.it
Telephone: +39-2-83241854 Fax: +39-2-83241854
Received: April 30, 2018
Peer-review started: April 30, 2018
First decision: July 10, 2018
Revised: July 24, 2018
Accepted: August 21, 2018
Article in press: August 21, 2018
Published online: October 14, 2018
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Metacognitive beliefs and rumination are correlated with social anxiety, which is located on a continuum of shyness. To our knowledge, no studies have explored the association between metacognitive beliefs, rumination and shyness in a non-clinical sample of adults.
Research motivation
To add to current knowledge about the association between metacognitive beliefs, rumination and shyness.
Research objectives
The main aim was to explore the association between metacognitive beliefs, rumination and shyness in a non-clinical sample of adults.
Research methods
This was an observational study, comprising a sample of 103 healthy subjects recruited from the general population.
Research results
Shyness, rumination and metacognition were significantly correlated (P < 0.05). The relationship between metacognition and shyness was fully mediated by rumination (Indirect effect: 0.20; 95% bias-corrected and accelerated: 0.08-0.33). These results build upon previous research.
Research conclusions
To our knowledge, no other study has investigated the link between metacognition and shyness, as well as the mediating role of rumination. The core findings of the study are: (1) The significant association between metacognition and shyness; and (2) the mediating role of rumination in explaining the relationship between metacognition and shyness. These results could have important implications for shy people. Although shyness is not a disease, the findings could be relevant in helping individuals understand the nature of their shyness by addressing its cognitive components.
Research perspectives
Our research appears to indicate that future studies should longitudinally investigate the causal relationship between metacognition, rumination and shyness. Moreover, future studies should explore other possible factors, in addition to rumination, that might explain the relationship between metacognition and shyness.
