The Prediction of shyness levels of high school students

Ill SUMMARY In the present study, the shyness levels of high school students were examined by gender, grade level, mother's education level, father's education level, perceived income, perceived parental attitude, perceived academic success, self- esteem and loneliness. The study was carried out on a sample of 689 students including (353 females and 336 males) from 9th, 10th and 11th grade levels of 6 (six) public high schools in Ankara. In the study, students' shyness, self-esteem, and loneliness levels were measured by "Shyness Scale", "Coopersmith Self- Esteem Inventory", and "UCLA Loneliness Scale" respectively. The validity and reliability studies of Shyness Scale for high school students were conducted by the researcher. Also, the personal information about the students was collected by using "Personal Information Form" which was developed by the researcher. In this study, the shyness levels of the students were measured by Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis method. The results of Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis revealed that, self- esteem, loneliness, education level of mother Dummy 3 and perceived income level variables were significant in predicting shyness. It was found that self esteem scores accounted for 20.2%, loneliness scores accounted for 3.9%, Dummy 3 variable related to educational level of mother 1.2% and perceived income scores accounted for 0.6% of total variance of shyness scores. These four variables explained 25.9% of the total variance of shyness scores. As a result, the findings of the present study show that self esteem is the most important variable, loneliness second most important variable in predicting shyness and these are followed by educational level of mother and perceived income respectively.