Developing a shyness scale for Japanese junior high school students

This study developed a Shyness scale for Japanese junior high school studen ts and examined the reliability and the validity of this scale. In this stu dy, 90 "Shyness" Items and items assessing tendencies theoretically linked to shyness (for example, self-consciousness or self-esteem) were administer ed to 577 junior high school students in Japan. 299 of the 577 students wer e administered also the SPI (Shimoda-shiki Personality Inventory). Four fac tors (Behavioral Inhibition in Personal Relationships, Fear of Negative Eva luation by Others, Lack of Confidence and Private Self-Consciousness) were extracted by principal components analysis. The coefficient alpha reliabili ties of the four shyness subscales were sufficient and demonstrated the val idity of the shyness scale, which was confirmed by correlations between the shyness subscales and the SPI subscales.