Shyness is associated with poorer preschool engagement, but few studies have evaluated the underlying mechanisms in Chinese preschoolers. This study explored the mediating role of teacher-child closeness and the moderating role of child gender in the association between shyness and school engagement to fill this gap. With the cluster sampling method, a total of 532 young children (240 girls; Mage = 4.29 years, SD = 0.65 years) were recruited from 15 suburban kindergartens in East China. Mothers rated children's shyness, and teachers evaluated children's school engagement and teacher-child closeness five months later. The results reveal the following: (1) Shyness was related to higher cooperative participation and lower school avoidance; (2) Teacher-child closeness mediated the relationships between shyness and school engagement. Specifically, shyness negatively predicted teacher-child closeness, and teacher-child closeness positively predicted cooperative and independent participations and school liking, and negatively predicted school avoidance; (3) Child gender moderated the relationship between shyness and school engagement, and specifically, for boys but not girls, shyness was significantly linked with lower school avoidance; for girls but not boys, shyness was significantly related to higher cooperative participation and lower independent participation. These findings have implications for the school engagement of preschoolers.
Keywords: child gender; moderated mediation model; preschoolers; school engagement; shyness; teacher–child relationship.