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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
AIM
To explore the association between metacognitive beliefs, rumination and shyness in a non-clinical sample of adults.
METHODS
One hundred and three healthy subjects from the general population were enrolled in the study. Shyness was evaluated using the Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale, rumination was assessed using the Ruminative Response Scale, metacognition was evaluated using the Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire 30, and anxiety levels were measured using the State Trait Anxiety Inventory form Y. Correlation analyses, mediation models and 95% bias-corrected and accelerated (BCaCI) bootstrapped analyses were performed. Mediation analyses were adjusted for sex and anxiety.
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% BCaCI: 0.08-0.33).
CONCLUSION
These findings suggest an association between metacognition and shyness. Rumination mediated the relationship between metacognition and shyness, suggesting that rumination could be a cognitive strategy for shy people. Future research should explore the relationship between these constructs in more depth.
Core tip: No previous studies have explored the relationship between metacognitive belief, rumination and shyness in a sample of adults. This research, based on the self-regulatory executive function model, explores the association between metacognitive beliefs, rumination and shyness. Results show a correlation between shyness, rumination and metacognition. Moreover, the relationship between metacognition and shyness was fully mediated by rumination. These findings have important implications for strengthening the social skills of shy individuals.
