Two types of behavioral inhibition: Relations to effortful control and attention in school children

This study aimed to examine the relationship of two types of behavioral inhibition, social inhibition and nonsocial inhibition, to effortful control and attention in 7–9-year olds. Social and nonsocial inhibition and effortful control were assessed by questionnaires. The child version of the Attention Network Task was used to measure attention including alerting, orienting and executive attention. Results indicated that in girls, social inhibition was negatively related to effortful control and alerting, while nonsocial inhibition was positively related to orienting; there was an interaction between social and nonsocial inhibition in predicting executive attention in boys. Thus, it is of great significance to differentiate social and nonsocial inhibition when examining the association between behavioral inhibition and effortful control and attention in school-age children.

► The relationship of behavioral inhibition to effortful control/attention.
► Social inhibition is negatively related to effortful control/ alerting in girls.
► Nonsocial inhibition is positively related to orienting in girls.
► Social and nonsocial inhibition interact in predicting conflict scores in boys.
► It is important to differentiate social and nonsocial inhibition.